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What is the Skills Assessment Procedure for ICT Professionals?
Because technology is affecting both the economy and our daily lives, there is a constant need for qualified IT specialists. For the 2019–2020 year, the Department of Home Affairs reports that the occupation ceilings for Software and Applications Programmers (2613) are 8,748 and 2,587, respectively. As of 11 April 2020, only 1,926 and 608 invites for these jobs (under skilled-Independent 189 and Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) 491) had been given due to the high EOI points necessary for those occupations, 95 and 105 points, respectively. You must have a favourable skills assessment in order to apply for skilled visas. The only organization that will evaluate as and credentials is ACS.
You can gain a general understanding of the ICT skills assessment procedure from this article. For additional details please visit the ACS website at https://www.acs.org.au/home.html .
What is skills assessment?
The comparison of actual skill performance to the standard for that skill’s performance in the conditions stated by the standard is known as skill assessment, and it determines whether the performance meets or exceeds the standards.
The appropriate authorities for skills evaluation offer assessments of skills. An organization called a skills evaluating authority verifies that your abilities meet the requirements necessary to function in a certain occupation.
You must first select an appropriate ANZSCO code for your proposed occupation:
Please refer to the ACS ANZSCO Code information to assist you in nominating an ICT occupation: http://www.acs.org.au/msa/anzsco-code-information.html
The ANZSCO code CANNOT be changed after the assessment procedure has started. Therefore, it is strongly advised that before selecting a nominated occupation ANZSCO code, you do your study and assess the appropriateness of your qualifications and job in reference to the ANZSCO code requirements.
Your application might not be acceptable for the nominated occupation, according to the assessor. If there is an obvious alternative in that scenario, a suitable ANZSCO code may be offered.
Please be informed that there will be an extra $200 charge.
Qualification and work experience:
Graduates with Australian ICT credentials must meet the following criteria:
- Australian Bachelor Degree or higher with ICT major*
- The qualification is closely related to your nominated occupation
- 1 year relevant ICT post-graduate work experience; OR completion of ACS Professional Year Program
*ICT major: For a conventional three-year Bachelor’s degree, an ICT concentration of at least 33 percent qualifies as an ICT major. It is at least 50% of the qualification in ICT for postgraduate degree levels that do not require a bachelor’s degree in an ICT-related field. For more details, please refer to Section 5 of ACS Migration Skills Assessment Guidelines: http://www.acs.org.au/msa/skills-assessment-guidelines-for-applicants.html
As long as you match their standards, you can still apply for the ACS skills assessment even if your degree is not from an authorized Australian university. If, for instance, you have a bachelor’s degree or higher (ICT major) from another country and the degree is closely related to the job you’ve chosen, you can satisfy their requirements by providing proof of either 2 years of recent, relevant ICT work experience OR 4 years of recent, relevant ICT work experience. As long as you have the necessary amount of work experience as needed by the ACS, you may also use your diploma degree for the skills evaluation. For more information regarding this matter, please have a look at ACS Summary of Criteria – A quick reference of assessment requirements: http://www.acs.org.au/msa/summary-of-criteria.html
Before claiming points for skilled employment, it is specified that those who want to claim EOI points for their work experience must first achieve the skill level requirement, which is the completion of both the appropriate qualification and the applicable work experience. To better grasp this skill level requirement, let’s look at a few examples.
Example 1 – Australian qualification with post-graduate work experience:
- You obtained a relevant Bachelor’s degree with an ICT major on December 31, 2012, and between February 1, 2013, and January 31, 2015, you worked in that field for two years.
- Your skill level criteria will be met on January 31, 2014, and the first year of work experience will be used to fulfill the requirement of the skills evaluation.
- Your Skilled Employment, which can be claimed for 5 EOI points, will be counted for the other year from 1 February 2014 to 31 January 2015. (1 year work experience in Australia)
Example 2 – Overseas qualification with employment BEFORE graduation:
- You have either 4 years of relevant job experience at any point in the past as of January 31, 2013, OR 2 years of relevant work experience during the last 10 years.
- You earn a relevant Bachelor’s degree on January 31, 2016.
- Due to your applicable job experience and qualification on that day, the Skill Level Requirement Met Date will be January 31, 2016.
- After January 31, 2016, any appropriate job experience will be taken into account for the Skilled Employment for Migration Points Test.
Documents checklist:
- Personal documents:
- Passport (colour scan the identification page)
- Resume/CV
- Qualification documents:
- Academic transcript (colour scan)
- Certificate OR completion letter (colour scan)
- If you have a Master degree, you should provide all underpinning qualifications’ documents as well, such as a bachelor’s degree, including non-ICT qualifications
- Work experience documents (for relevant work of 20 hours or more per week)
- Work references on company letterhead; OR
- Third party Statutory Declarations
- Payment evidence: at least 2 different types of documentary evidence listed below
- Official government tax records
- Payslips
- Employment link insurance/superannuation documents
- Bank statement showing salary payments from employer
*** Note: ACS does not require any English language tests for skills assessment.
For more details, please visit ACS application checklist: https://www.acs.org.au/content/dam/acs/acs-skills/Application-Checklist.pdf
Fees:
For Post Australian Study Skills Assessment, it costs AUD $500. For more details, please visit the ACS website: https://www.acs.org.au/msa/information-for-applicants.html
Processing time:
The processing of the skills assessment takes 8 to 10 weeks. Please give the skills assessment extra time if more information is needed in order to complete it.
ESI is here to assist if you wish to live and work in Australia as a skilled immigrant and need professional advice. With ample experience in the field of education and migration consulting, we offer complete solutions to the candidates and support them during the entire procedure.