English language requirements for some 457 visa holders introduced.
A complex set of rules have been announced requiring some 457 holders to meet an English requirement. The new requirements will not apply to persons with passports from English speaking countries or acceptable levels of English medium education or occupations in chapters 1-3 of the ASCO dictionary (see http://www.abs.gov.au/) unless those occupations are registrable. What this means in practice is that most developing world, and European, tradespersons in Australia on 457 visas will now need to meet an English level of average 4.5 on the IELTS test. Most other 457 visa holders will not need to meet this criterion although there may be anomalies in some cases. An obvious anomaly already apparent is that a chef (ASCO 3322-11) will not need an IELTS score but a cook (ASCO 4513-11) will. See http://www.minister.immi.gov
Assessments of some tradespersons for General Skilled Migration will be taken over by Vetassess from 1 September.
It will be based on practical assessment. The new procedure will be far more expensive than the current TRA procedure, and also slower. The definition of "resident" which will determine who must go through the new procedures has not been released.
The new skills assessment service applies only to residents of India, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, South Africa and the Philippines who wish to have their skills assessed for these trades:
* general electrician
* refrigeration and air-conditioning mechanic
* motor mechanic
* general plumber
* carpenter and joiner
* bricklayer
* cable jointer
* electrical powerline tradesperson
See full details on the Vetassess website at http://www.vetassess.com.au
ACS accepting "secret" certifications
Until the middle of 2006, ACS only accepted four certifications for Group B skills assessment, however they then decided to bring their membership requirements into line with their membership requirements, which has accepted an additional 5 certifications since 2004.
This is the current statement on the ACS membership site:
(v) Certain vendor certification courses either individually or in combination and supported by substantial relevant experience may be sufficient to meet the ACS body of knowledge requirements for entry to the Associate level of membership. (Applicants with vendor qualifications MCSE, MCSD, CLP and CNE gained from 1997, and CDE, Master CNE, CNI, CCE, and OCM gained from 2004 with such experience will be considered eligible for at least Associate Membership).
Clarification received from ACS about this is that the new certifications are only acceptable if acquired after 1 January 2004.
Details follow:
CDE - Certified Directory Engineer
This is a Novell certification which was discontinued on 1 April 2004 so in fact you would have had to get it in the first three months of 2004 to qualify. Beats me why they would bother to approve this, given the timeframe.
Master CNE - Master Certified Novell Engineer,
CNI - Certified Novell Instructor
CCE - Citect Certified Engineer - http://www3.citect.com/partner
OCM - Oracle Certified Master
Changes to Skilled Migration Program
the General Skilled Migration program in place.
From 1 September, all General Skilled Migration applications will be subject
to a revised points test. In addition, there will be special arrangements
in place to allow onshore students to meet the points test as graduates and
the base English levels will be increased in most cases.
The changes are complex and are not yet fully explained on the DIAC website,
which is where we would normally refer readers of our website. We are
therefore, exceptionally, publishing a powerpoint presentation (click here to download) by the Department which addresses most of the changes and issues: .
For further background, see
http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled
and http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled