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Skilled Migration: Trades Recognition Australia Announces Details of Job Ready Program
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| Author: |
Alan Collett |
| Date: |
Sunday, December 27, 2009 |
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Australia's Department of Immigration announced a new "Job Ready Program" for onshore trade skills migrants several months ago.
From the 1st of January, 2010 the migration skills assessment process for certain onshore general skilled migration program visa applicants who nominate a trade occupation will include a requirement for applicants to demonstrate that they are "job ready".
Notes
1. Applications for a migration skills assessment must be lodged with TRA on or before 31st December, 2009 if the application is from an individual who is intending to apply for an onshore permanent residency visa, and is to be assessed under TRA's existing Skill Pathway E criteria.
2. These changes do not affect individuals applying for an offshore general skilled visa, such as a Skilled Independent subclass 175 visa, or a Skilled Sponsored subclass 176 visa.
The new "job ready" requirement will be assessed through TRA's Job Ready Program. The Job Ready Program has been developed by the relevant assessing authority for trade skills applicants, Trades Recognition Australia (TRA), in consultation with industry and Trades Unions.
According to the TRA website (see the weblink below):
"Trades Recognition Australia has been working to develop a program that provides people applying for skills assessments from within Australia with a real opportunity to increase their chance of gaining employment in their chosen trade if they are successful in their bid to migrate to Australia as a skilled worker.
Recognising the difficulty that many applicants to TRA were having in gaining 900 hours relevant work experience during the period of their student visa that was required under previous requirements, TRA has developed a new skills assessment program.
The new TRA Job Ready Program allows participants more time to gain valuable experience in an Australian workplace. Our discussions with employers told us that this experience is highly valued. The Job Ready Program is designed to give you time to develop and demonstrate your trade skills and to gain valuable workplace experience thereby giving you a better chance of finding work in your trade if you are successful in application for permanent migration."
The Job Ready Program will be a 4 step process:
A Provisional Skills Assessment
This will enable individuals who have completed a suitable course of study to apply to the Department of Immigration for a subclass 485 Skilled Graduate temporary residency visa.
To be eligible to apply for a Provisional Skills Assessment individuals must have:
* a valid visa class
* an AQF qualification in an occupation assessed by TRA
* relevant work experience performed in Australia that demonstrates a range of tasks and duties of the occupation you are qualified in
* an IELTS score of 6 or greater in each of the reading, writing, listening and speaking sub-tests of the one General Training test
Note: applicants will are not required to sit the IELTS test to demonstrate the English language threshold if they hold a valid passport from (and are a citizen of) one of the following countries:
+ United Kingdom (UK)
+ Canada
+ New Zealand
+ United States of America (USA)
+ Republic of Ireland
* paid TRA's Provisional Skills Assessment Fee of A$300
Complete Job Ready Employment
On a subclass 485 visa individuals have 18 months to complete the required 12 months of full time employment that enable them to gain more skills and experience in an Australian workplace.
Employers must be prepared to register with TRA and enter into an employment contract with the subclass 485 visaholder, in which the employer will be expected to pay relevant award wages.
All employment contracts and employer details are to be registered with TRA within 30 working days of the commencement of the employment.
During the employment the employed person will be required to demonstrate his or her proficiency in the workplace across a broad range of trade related tasks relevant to the workplace.
Once the employee has registered the employment with TRA s/he will be able to download a Workplace Log from the TRA website; the Workplace Log will be used by employee and employer to validate the employee's skills; the employer will indicate the employee's proficiency against a list of tasks recorded in the Workplace Log.
TRA will then conduct monitoring visits to the workplace during the Job Ready Employment.
During the employment the employee will also be required to complete training relating to Australian workplace English and Australian workplace culture. This training will be provided by TRA approved Registered Training Organisations and will involve on the job assessment in the workplace.
Costs: Job Ready Employment - A$750; Estimated cost of Australian Workplace English and Workplace Culture training modules delivered by TRA approved RTOs - A$1,200.
Job Ready Workplace Assessment
After the individual has been working continuously in his or her chosen trade for at least 6 months full-time s/he will be able to register for a Workplace Assessment.
This will be conducted by a TRA approved assessor in the workplace.
The assessment will be a practical test of the employee's capacity to apply trade skills in an Australian workplace.
Cost: A$2,000
Job Ready Final Assessment
Once the above stages have been completed individuals will progress to the Final Assessment, which will include:
* validation of successful completion of all components of the Job Ready Employment
* validating employment contracts and employer verification
* validation of successful Workplace Assessment
* interviews with employers and applicants to validate job related skills as recorded in workplace log
When the application has been assessed, individuals will be advised of the outcome by letter and/or email.
With a successful outcome individuals will be able to use that letter to apply to the Department of Immigration for permanent residency under the general skilled program.
Cost: A$300
Comment
These are fundamental changes impacting on a significant revenue earner for the Australian economy.
Indeed, whether the Australian Government likes it or not, many individuals have enrolled on trade skills courses in Australia, have obtained student visas, have travelled to Australia to obtain an Australian qualification, and have committed their valuable funds to a strategy that included applying for a permanent residency visa under the onshore skilled program based on information that was clearly set out on the Australian Department of Immigration's website for many years.
Commenting now (as stated here) that: "Students should not make educational choices solely on the basis of hoping to achieve a particular migration outcome, as the GSM program will continue to change and adapt to Australia’s economic needs" does not (in our view) negate the responsibility that the Australian Government has towards those who have expended money based on the Australian Government's representations in the past (whether or not of the present political persuasion).
Furthermore, the Job Ready Program has attributes of a paper managing bureaucracy, and reflects the increasing influence of the Trades Unions over the policies of the Australian Federal Government. We doubt whether many (if any) Australian employers will be prepared to commit their time to the processes as described above, and we look forward to seeing statistics being made public in the next 12 months that demonstrate the success (or otherwise) of these changes.
Finally, we anticipate that this issue will assume a greater prominence in the general community once the wider media become aware of the Job Ready changes. With a Federal Election due in 2010 we think it probable that the Minister will trumpet the Job Ready Program as being in the interest of Australian businesses; we suggest that the burdens that the Job Ready Program imposes on employers makes it more probable that employers will simply not employ student visaholders who are graduating with trade skills qualifications - how that will benefit Australian employers is a mystery to us.
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| Weblink: |
http://www.deewr.gov.au/Skills/Programs/TRA/residenceVisa/JobReady/Pages/Overview.aspx |
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