Applying for a general professional occupation

New Advisory Service – General Occupations

Our new on-line VETASSESS Advisory Service offers you the opportunity to obtain customised advice and support to assist you to prepare a formal application to VETASSESS for a skills assessment against the requirements of your nominated occupation for migration purposes. To find out more about this new Advisory Service click here.

Skills Recognition- General Occupations

Skills Recognition - General Occupations (SRGO) at VETASSESS is an assessing authority approved by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship to undertake skills assessment for the migration program.

SRGO assesses post-secondary educational qualifications and employment against the requirements of nominated occupations under the General Skilled Migration (GSM) program [including state/Regional Sponsored visas and Skilled Graduate (Temporary) visa (subclass 485)] and the Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS).

General professional occupations assessed by VETASSESS include:

  • managerial
  • professional
  • technician, community, personal service, clerical, administrative and sales occupations

Skill Assessments Criteria for General Occupations

Our assessment process, effective from the 1st of January 2010, aims at a better match of qualifications and employment readiness to the nominated occupation. This will ensure that applicants who meet the occupational requirements for migration are more likely to work in their nominated occupation after migrating to Australia. The assessment involves considering the applicants' post-secondary qualification/s and relevant employment history against the requirements of their nominated occupation.

VETASSESS Skills Recognition - General Occupations requires applicants to hold –

  • a qualification which is assessed at the required educational level, in a highly relevant field of study to the nominated occupation, and
  • at least one year of employment completed at an appropriate level over the last five years in a highly relevant field to the nominated occupation is required for all nominated occupations.

For some occupations additional qualifications may compensate for the lack of a relevant major or additional years of employment may be required if the qualification is not in a highly relevant field or if the employment is pre-qualification.

Applicants for a 485 visa nominating a VETASSESS occupation only need to have their educational qualifications assessed. If you wish to apply for a qualifications assessment to support a 485 visa application please click here

All VETASSESS occupations have been coded as A, B, C, D and E. The different groups reflect the differences in educational and employment requirements for different occupations. Please click here for the list of occupations and further information.

Please note: The occupations listed on DIAC and ANZSCO websites are also used for purposes other than migration, and therefore some information (such as licensing or registration) will not be relevant to a VETASSESS Skills Assessment.

Points Test Advice for General Skilled Migration

Applicants for GSM visas can also apply to VETASSESS for an Advisory Letter to give to DIAC for Points Test purposes. This is an additional optional assessment. For more information please see Points Test Advice

More information