Diploma in OT

[Shartleen]

Has anyone with a Diploma in Occupational therapy moved to Australia? I'd like to hear the experiences, epecially regarding skills assessment. 

I have 10 years OT experience with diploma, only recently I got a Masters, does the experience with the diploma count? Someone please advise. 

[Alma_]

Hi

Is it a Graduate/Postgraduate Diploma? The general rule is that if your course is on the list of WFOT-approved programmes then you’re fine.

https://www.wfot.org/programmes/education/wfot-approved-education-programmes

If it’s an older programme that isn’t listed, I would contact the OT Council in Australia as they might still do an equivalency check and confirm whether your pre-MSc years count. 
 

 

[Shartleen]

It's a regular 3 year diploma, wfot accredited. 

[Alma_]

Then you should have a smoothless skills assessment. And be able to claim for all your experience in the EOI

[Shartleen]

Thanks for your response.

I've seen elsewhere in this site that immigration may not recognize the experience that one had before the degree. They're a different profession though, so I'm concerned if the same applies to OT. From their experiences one may pass the skills assessment based on the diploma but still fail at the immigration. 

[Alma_]

My understanding is that for the skill assessment the OT Council only looks at your qualifying degree, be it BSc MSc, anything. As long as it’s WFOT accredited, it’s OK. They don’t look at experience at all.

For immigration, the number of your professional years count from getting your qualification.

 I’m not an expert however, this is just my experience from having recently completed this process.

 

[Marisawright]

7 hours ago, Shartleen said:

Thanks for your response.

I've seen elsewhere in this site that immigration may not recognize the experience that one had before the degree. They're a different profession though, so I'm concerned if the same applies to OT. From their experiences one may pass the skills assessment based on the diploma but still fail at the immigration. 

Each occupation on the list has its own criteria.  However, every time this question has come up on these forums in the past, for any occupation, the answer has always been that the skills assessment/registration body will accept pre-qualification experience, but it's extremely unlikely that Immigration will accept it.