Last modified 01/25/2024

Which are the competences and skills that an immigrant must possess in order to obtain a job in Australia Which are the competences and skills that an immigrant must possess in order to obtain a job in Australia?The competences and skills required by a professional immigrant in other to be able to practice his or her profession in an Australian state or territory goes through a Skills Assessment, which is based in his or her professional formation and work experience and it is effected according to the occupation chosen in the Skill Occupation List (SOL) by organisms of the Australian Government. Besides of having a good command of the English language.

 

The Australian continuous economic development has generated the demand for work force to be unable to be adequately taken care of by the local offer, because of, mainly, the ageing of its population and to the lack of a greater number of specialized staff among the Australian citizens and permanent residents, which puts the Australian Government into a position in which they have seen themselves forced to make easier the entrance of immigrants from all over the world through the Australian Migratory Program.

The purpose of the Australian Migratory Program is capacitating skilled immigrant who are professionals or not, but that in their training and previous work experiences, they have been able to adequately insert themselves into the Australian work market, through the Skilled Migration Program or through the Regional Migration Program, to whose benefits are accessed by all of those immigrants who obtain a score of more than 120 and 100 points respectively, when they are summed into the qualification system known as the “General Skilled Migration”.

The “General Skilled Migration” qualification system demands fulfilling a series of requirements that the applicant to immigrant must fulfill in order to be able to access to the qualification:
Having less than 45 years old.
Having work experience in the demanded field of work.
Having college or technical titles related to the position to which the immigrant is applying.
Having a good command of the English language, approving the IELTS exam with the minimum score established by the qualifications system.
That the profession, activity or occupation that the immigrant has, is included in the Skill Occupation List (SOL).

After fulfilling those requirements and obtaining the minimum score required pointed out in the General Skilled Migration Program or in the Regional Migration Program, the immigrant obtain the visa with which he is authorized to enter into the Australian territory, and, also, been able to access to sponsored job positions by some company or state and / or territorial government, or, also, been able to directly search for a job.

In any of the cases mentioned above, professionally developing in Australia means that the immigrant will have to have accredited, before Australian competent organisms, his or her condition of a professional, to be able to certify his or her knowledge and his or her work experience, because, we must not let aside that for the Australian employer, the degrees achieved, the colleges who gave them and the companies in which we work, do not mean much, inclusively for European immigrants.

This is why, the most advisable thing to do, for the professional immigrant, is that, once he or she has obtained the visa and the job, he or she must try to study a course or a career in a high education institution, including universities, which will allow him or her to, in the future, acquire Australian work experience and qualifications, which will, at the same time, allow him or her accessing to job positions with better qualifications and a better salary.

The competences and skills that an immigrant must possess in order to obtain a professional job are various among the different professions, occupations and activities, but there is one which is common in every profession and among every immigrant, and it is the good command of the English language.

The evaluation tests that are valid are the English sufficiency tests offered by the International English Testing System, also known as IELTS, which can be tested by more than 6 000 educative organizations that are internationally acknowledged and distributed in more than 120 countries all over the world, which means that, probably, in the immigrant’s country of origin there could be more than one of these institutions applying the test, for which it is very important to consult the online site of the organization:

http://www.ielts.org/test_takers_information/find_my_nearest_test_centre.aspx

The IELTS English sufficiency tests are from two different types, first there is the IELTS General Exam or IELTS formation test, and they are chosen according to the immigrant’s purpose, which can be studying, working, or both at the same time. The examinations evaluate four phases, the first one is about reading comprehension, the second about listening comprehension, and the third one involves a writing activity and a conversation.

The professional immigrants are able of validating their degrees according to the acquired professional competences, occupations or activities that they possess and that are in the Skill Occupation List, also known as the SOL, because, if it is not found in the list, your possibilities of applying for a visa to Australia are almost none.

It means that, been in the Skill Occupation List (SOL), we only have to choose which occupation is closer to our educative certification and work experience, because, the organism in charge of delivering the Skills Assessment will check the requirements needed by the occupation with the documentation we present to apply for that occupation.

It is important to highlight that there are many the Australian organisms that perform the Skills Assessment, for which any consult must be done in the following web site: http://www.immi.go.au/asri/, and there you will be able of finding the information you need, including requirements, deadlines and pays that need to be done.

Once the Skills Assessment is obtained, and so is the work visa, both given by the Australian Government, the immigrant is not necessarily ready to practice his or her profession, because, in some states and territories, they are additionally demanded to have a License given by the state, which has a register that allows practicing the profession.

Summing up, all Australian states and territories have their own rules for certain occupations. The professional immigrants in Australia need to have their Skills Assessments, which are the ones that allow them practicing their profession according to the occupation they have, although in some occupations some states and territories require that additionally, the immigrants must have a license to practice in a state field and that they are registered in the corresponding professional association.