Skill assessment: relevant field of study for PhD degree

[chwu]

Dear all,

Glad to find this forum about migration and PR application in Australia :- ) Hope everyone is doing well in his/her migration process.

I am a PhD student in VIC in the field of environmental science, with research projects/publications focused on developing novel mathematically/statistical tools in land/agriculture/wildlife management. I aim at applying 190 visa upon graduation.

After browsing through many great existing posts (here and elsewhere e.g. expatforum), I noticed there is no discussion about how skill assessment authority (VETASSESS in my case) would judge the relevancy of an interdisciplinary research degree against one or more occupation ---- i.e. with a master by research or PhD degree with significant components of multiple fields of study (e.g. math + agriculture + spatial scientist), are we eligible for all those occupation?

According to VETASSESS website and migration agencies, it is not clear how applicant should prove that such a research degree is "suitable for the occupation in Australia" and has "the depth (progression) and breadth of study in the major" (https://www.vetassess.com.au/skills...on/general-occupations/nominate-an-occupation) 

My questions are:

• How do we judge the eligibility of a PhD degree against multiple occupation?
• What documents/subject transcripts/deliverable/prove should be prepared to demonstrate the relevancy of a PhD degree to one or more occupation?

Look forward to your comments and discussion! 
I will continue searching relevant info and consult some agencies on this issue and keep this post updated.

Cheers

[VERYSTORMY]

A PhD on its own may not be enough for a positive skills assessment. It is up to you to identify an occupation. Then you need to check if you meet the requirements for that occupation. Be aware that most occupations, particularly in the areas you may be looking at, require several years work experience. 

[chwu]

On 20/05/2018 at 15:15, VERYSTORMY said:

A PhD on its own may not be enough for a positive skills assessment. It is up to you to identify an occupation. Then you need to check if you meet the requirements for that occupation. Be aware that most occupations, particularly in the areas you may be looking at, require several years work experience. 

Thanks for the reply. Do you mean that just having thesis/publication contents aligned to the ANZSCO description for a occupation is not enough?  If so, does that mean course/subject records are necessary?

[VERYSTORMY]

No. It means that academic study for most occupations, regardless of how much or to what level is not enough. If you look at the skilled lists at homeaffairs.gov.au wen site. Look at which occupations you think you fall into and next to the occupation will be the assessing authority for that occupation. Go to the assessing authority web site and it will detail what is needed to pass the skills assessment for that occupation. In most cases it will stipulate several years of experience of actually working in that occupation 

A PhD is often not enough for a visa without the work experience. 

[chwu]

On 22/05/2018 at 14:39, VERYSTORMY said:

No. It means that academic study for most occupations, regardless of how much or to what level is not enough. If you look at the skilled lists at homeaffairs.gov.au wen site. Look at which occupations you think you fall into and next to the occupation will be the assessing authority for that occupation. Go to the assessing authority web site and it will detail what is needed to pass the skills assessment for that occupation. In most cases it will stipulate several years of experience of actually working in that occupation 

A PhD is often not enough for a visa without the work experience. 

Indeed as you said, on VETASSESS many of the occupation requires post-qualification work experiences. Applying to 190 visa using PhD degree as qualification seems not possible unless an extra year or two of work experience is gained. It seems using other pre-PhD degree as qualification is the solution, given one has suitable work experience for the occupation associated with that degree.

About the evidences used for assessing PhD degree relevancy, I also received a reply from VETASSESS to my inquiry. Unfortunately they only state that "You will need to check the assessment criteria for each nominated occupation on our website". No explanation of what evidences are used for their assessment. I guess you need to use the paid consultation service to get a more detailed answer.

 

Thanks for your replies and suggestions! Hope this information will also be useful to others.

 

[chilli888]

2 hours ago, chwu said:

Indeed as you said, on VETASSESS many of the occupation requires post-qualification work experiences. Applying to 190 visa using PhD degree as qualification seems not possible unless an extra year or two of work experience is gained. It seems using other pre-PhD degree as qualification is the solution, given one has suitable work experience for the occupation associated with that degree.

About the evidences used for assessing PhD degree relevancy, I also received a reply from VETASSESS to my inquiry. Unfortunately they only state that "You will need to check the assessment criteria for each nominated occupation on our website". No explanation of what evidences are used for their assessment. I guess you need to use the paid consultation service to get a more detailed answer.

 

Thanks for your replies and suggestions! Hope this information will also be useful to others.

 

I think VETASSESS consider PhD as a work experience for scientific occupations. If you have relevant Masters or Bachelor degree, you may apply for for skill assessment  against the nominated occupations.