With Australian immigration scheduled to switch to using the ANZSCO occupation classification upon the implementation of the new Skilled Occupation List on 1 July, 2010, we've been speaking to a number of the key Australian assessing bodies to get an idea of what their approach will be going forward.

After receiving comments from Engineers Australia and VETASSESS yesterday, we've now received a statement from the branch of VETASSESS that assesses the skills of tradespeople, which is informally known as VETASSESS Trades:

VETASSESS Trades comment on the ASCO-ANZSCO switch

"Please be advised that VETASSESS can offer you the following information at this stage:

VETASSESS will not be issuing Skills Assessments in ANZSCO until the 1st of July, 2010.  The Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) have advised that they will be publishing an ASCO-ANZSCO mapping table which will detail the conversion of occupations from ASCO to ANZSCO.  Generally speaking, if an occupation has a direct match from ASCO to ANZSCO and VETASSESS are still the assessing authority for that occupation, applicants will not require a reassessment under the ANZSCO code. 

Please see the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) website at www.immi.gov.au for future publication of the ASCO-ANZSCO mapping table and the latest SOL list."

While this statement doesn't provide much new information, it is reassuring to see VETASSESS reiterate that they will accept positive ASCO skills assessments, provided the occupation has a direct match on ANZSCO.

Additionally, the reference to the ASCO-ANZSCO mapping table is interesting, with the current assumption being that the mapping table will provide a fairly comprehensive method of matching occupations from ASCO to ANZSCO.

While I still anticipate that not every occupation will be accounted for, it seems that efforts will be made to make allowances where possible and reduce the need for applicants to undergo reassessment. It may be that DIAC will simply follow the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) method of mapping ASCO occupations to ANZSCO occupations (which you can see by clicking here), but until further details are released, it's impossible to know how the new mapping table will work.

- Lauren Mennie is Casework Department Manager for the Australian Visa Bureau.

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