Skill Assessments are required to support your claim of skills in various visa subclasses in Australia. For some visas it is mandatory to provide a positive skill assessment for the occupation you have selected for your visa.
Some visas that require a skill assessment include:
Most occupations have their own skills assessing authority. The Department only accepts a skills assessment issued by the relevant assessing authority therefore you are encouraged to arrange your skills assessment well before you intend to submit your Expression of Interest (EOI) in SkillSelect or your Visa application. You cannot rely on a skills assessment that was obtained after you were invited to apply.
If you are unsure, Contact Us and we will be happy to discuss your case and provide our advice on the best option and approach.
Relevant Assessing Authority
The Department has outlined which skill assessing authorities are eligible to provide a skill assessment for each occupation. Some of the most popular and widely used skill assessing authorities include VETASSESS, ACS (for IT/computer related professionals), and for some occupations such as Accountants, there may be multiple assessing authorities approved to provide the Skill Assessment.
There are more than 600 occupations and almost 40 assessing bodies whom each have their own procedure, criteria and timeframe. The processing times vary for each occupation however the average processing time is anywhere between 6 – 12 weeks for most occupations.
If you are looking to apply for skills assessment with Engineers Australia (EA), read our blog here.
Requirements for Skills Assessment Application
Most Assessing bodies assess skills for your nominated occupation based on your education qualification, professional licence (if any) and your work experience. The documents that are mostly required in these applications are as follows
- Degree or Award Certificate and transcripts
- Employment References
- Project Details Report if applying for Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)
- Detail Curriculum Vitae
- Personal Identification documents such as Birth Certificate, Passport and Id Card
In some cases you may also need to provide a short summary of each subject and its content to show relation of the degree to the skill assessment occupation.
It is important that all documents supplied to the Authority are translated, well descripted and certified copies so that you do not miss out on any significant experience due to lack of either an experience letter or extent of work performed in that role.
If you are seeking assistance to get your assessment done, Discuss your Case with us today.
ANZSCO Code Requirements
The assessing body checks your qualification and work experience against the ANZSCO code requirements.
Australia and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO) is a system that collects, publishes and analyses occupation statistics across government agencies. It is used by the Department to capture information in all visa, settlement and citizenship programs. Importantly, it is used within the skilled visa programs as the standard by which a visa applicant’s skills and work experience to undertake a specific occupation in Australia are assessed.
ANZSCO sets out what level of qualification/s and experience are required to perform specific jobs and what your tasks would be in that occupation. If you are applying for a visa under skilled migration, the Department case officer assessing your visa application will want to see proof that you have undertaken the required qualifications and/or have the necessary work experience as outlined for your listed occupation in ANZSCO.
To know more about ANZSCO, read our blog here.
Validity of Skills Assessment
Usually, the assessment is valid for 3 years from date of issue. In other cases, the date mentioned on the result is considered as a validity for your assessment.
If you wish for us to represent and assist you with your Skill Assessment application and create a pathway of possible visa options, Contact Us or call us on +61246261002.