Different skills standards for different assessing bodies

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Created on Monday, 05 August 2013 15:00

Written by Editorial staff

Liana Allan, treasurer of Migration Alliance, recently contacted the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) with an enquiry about a client.

The client's skills assessment was positive. This was based on the fact that they held a degree closely related to their field of work and had eight years of post-qualification work experience, also closely related to their chosen occupation and at a skilled level.

Taking all of this into account, Ms Allan asked the DIAC whether they would regard the client as having eight years of work experience.

She said that guidelines provided by the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) suggest that the client would. However, the Australian Computer Society (ACS) would only consider this to constitute six years experience.

In the response Ms Allan received from the DIAC, they stated that the ANZSCO only provides criteria for entry-level occupations, and that the ACS uses this as a guide.

The ACS is "the authority for IT occupations", so it can determine additional criteria for "either skills assessment or skilled employment over and above that described in the ANZSCO".

The DIAC went on to say that each assessing body is well within its rights to set its own skills standards.

They explained that the DIAC does correspond with such bodies on a regular basis to decide whether certain applicants' qualifications meet Australian standards for working in skilled occupations, but that on the whole, assessing bodies are "autonomous".

So, the feedback of the assessing body - in this case, the ACS - would be taken into consideration when DIAC case officers decide whether or not to award points to an applicant for their experience in skilled employment.

Should the assessing body fail to provide the DIAC with any feedback regarding an applicant's claims about the period in which they undertook skilled employment, DIAC case officers will "consider any claims regarding employment experience for this period by the applicant against the evidence presented."

What can migration agents take from all this?

It seems there are multiple skills standards that those applying for migration visas need to comply with. This all depends on which occupation they are travelling here to fill, and which assessing body they are assigned to as a result.