Fallen at the first hurdle.... UK qualification not equivelent to AQF...Help!!!

[cjenks34]

Hi all new to this so hope im posting in the correct place.

After trawling the internet and asking millions of questions i finally thought i had finally found a way to make our dream of living and working in Australia a reality. I am a Project administrator (Logistics) for a international exhibition company and have been for the past 9 years and this occupation is on the CSOL so i thought great!

 

We would love to move to Perth so again i thought great the occupation is on the WA skills list too so we can apply for State Sponsorship. Everything finally seemed to be falling into place. So after researching what our first steps were i looked into getting my skills assessed by Vetasses....this is where i have hit our stumbling block.

 

I have a B-Tec national diploma but apparently this is only equivelent to a AQF IV and i would require a AQF Diploma which is equivelent to a HND or HNC to get a sucessful skills assessment. Has anyone sucessfully found a way around this? I do not want to let go of this dream so what (if any) are my alternatives? Should i return to study? Ive have looked on the TAFE website and they do AQF Diplomas in Project management / Transport & Logistics (Distance learning - i have seen another thread where someone else has taken this route) but then my next question would be if i were to do this would my 9 years experiance still be relevant as this would be pre-qualification?? If not i don't think i would meet the pass mark in the points test. I am now getting quite confused as no one is willing to give me an answer on this. I dont want to waste time and money going down this route if at the end of the study i am in the same position as i am now.

 

Any advice / information and of you lovely people could give would be much appreicated

 

Thanks

Claire

[k8bug79]

Hi Claire, not 100% sure it's the same but when we first looked at Oz we did a similar thing. my husband is a chef with 15 years expbut his qualifications weren't what they recognised. a migration agent advised he took an assessment to give him equivalent quaification. would have cost us £1k ifi recall correctly adconsisted of a couple of days (certainly short) i think its to prove you have the equivalent skills to hnd. maybe speak to an agent to check?

[cjenks34]

Hi Kate

thanks for the info, i have tried speaking with several agents regarding this but none seem to want to give you any initial advice. I dont want to appoint an agent and have to pay them what ever it is they charge for them to just turn around and say no sorry there is nothing you can do. I am more than willing to pay for help to get us off on the right path but dont really have money to throw away. I suppose im in a catch 22 position. I may have to bite the bullet and pay someone to tell me either way where we stand. Can you remember the migration agent you spoke to?

Thanks again

[k8bug79]

i believe it was go matilda and they didn't charge us. they told us who to speak with. sorry can't recall much as wasa few years back and didn't go too far into it as hubby was eligible for citizenship. hope someone can be more specific, but don't give up hope

[Jacaranda]

I don't know anything about your skills so can't advise that way but if you do have to pay out for info,I think I'd rather do that and know the answer so I could move on either way.Its not the end of the world if for example you can't emigrate.

[cjenks34]

Hi thanks for your replies. I will contact Go Matilda and see what they say. I know it is not the end of the world, but this is something we have been thinking about for such a long time now and finally thought we had it sussed. Just feel a little deflated and was hoping there was some one out there who had overcome a similar situation. There is always the 457 option to look at but really was hoping we would not have to go down that route. "Give up, Give in or Give it your all" i'm definatley going for the latter

[coastie]

Best of luck! Many people have replaced qualifications with experience. I did with the help of an agent.

[Rupert]

I have looked at your chosen occupation on the vetasses website, you are right you need at least an AQF diploma level of qualification for this occupation and I see no way around that. So you would need to look to add to your studying first of all and then it would be another year at least before you can apply for the skills assessment.

 

It is a little ambiguous as to whether the post qualification employment would be counted, but I would not rule it out. Still how many points could you get without relying on may years of experience, considering that you are likely to be one possibly two years older by then?

 

In addition to this, the applicant must have at least one year of post-qualification employment in a field which is highly relevant and at an appropriate skill level to your nominated occupation completed in the five years before the date of application for a Skills Assessment. Pre-qualification employment may be considered.

[wrussell]

if i were to do this would my 9 years experiance still be relevant as this would be pre-qualification??

 

For points, probably yes. The work experience opinions charged for by assessing authorities are largely irrelevant, but for VETASSESS you need enough post-qualification to meet their skills assessment criteria.

[cjenks34]

Thanks all for taking the time to reply. Coastie that is encouraging to hear. I have emailed a few agents this evening to try and figure out where i stand, fingers crossed they may be able to come up with a way around this. On the immi.gov website it does state that more than 3 years experiance can replace the official qualification but not sure how this works as you cannot get past Vetassas without it?? Hopefully i can get a bit of free advice from one of the Agents. Coastie which agent did you use?

 

Rupert - the points for my age would not change. I am hoping that if i do take the route of doing the extra qualification my post experiance will count.

Again thank you all for the info.

[Rupert]

Thanks all for taking the time to reply. Coastie that is encouraging to hear. I have emailed a few agents this evening to try and figure out where i stand, fingers crossed they may be able to come up with a way around this. On the immi.gov website it does state that more than 3 years experiance can replace the official qualification but not sure how this works as you cannot get past Vetassas without it?? Hopefully i can get a bit of free advice from one of the Agents. Coastie which agent did you use?

 

.

 

 

The immi website is making a generic statement that in some cases, experience can replace qualifications. However this does not apply to your occupation, because as you note you must have the qualification for the skills assessment, I can see no other option for this occupation code.

[cjenks34]

I fear you are right Rupert, i feel my only options are 1. Go down the Sponsored route or 2. Get my AQF Diploma continue work in my current occupation for the 1 year and hope my occupation is still on the list when the time comes to get things moving. I can home study and really get stuck in every evening and weekends and get the course done in as little time as possible. I was thinking of doing the Diploma through TAFE, at least i am confident that this is the qualification they require rather than doing a UK course and runnign the risk that it does not meet Australian standards. I just feel like i am hitting a brick wall all the time. Now just need to pick the right course!!!! Thanks again. I'm keeping evreything crossed that we make it in the end.