ACS assessment suitability criteria - Year deduction from experience

MysticRiver

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There has been a lot of confusion regarding the ACS policy of experience deduction. Based on the qualification, ACS deducts 2-8 years relevant experience from the applicant's experience history. The exact amount of deduction depends on mainly 2 things - the level of qualification & relevancy of qualification with the nominated occupation. Furthermore, if the applicant does not have any ICT related tertiary degree or vendor certification, he needs to submit an RPL as an additional requirement. However, submitting an RPL does not change the situation regarding experience deduction. In this post, I tried to summarize all the ACS assessment criteria.

Summary of Criteria:

1. Post Australian Study Skills Assessment
This application is only if you have completed an Australian Bachelor degree or higher at an Australian educational institution in Australia and you would like a skill assessment for migration purposes in general. You need
  • an Australian Bachelor degree or higher with a major in ICT which is closely related to the nominated occupation (ANZSCO) plus one of the following requirements for a suitable skills assessment:
    • 1 year of relevant work experience completed after the completion date of the relevant Australian degree, or
    • Completion of an ACS Professional Year Program
If you meet the above requirement, ACS will not deduct anything from your post-qualification experience and you can claim points for any Australian/overseas experience that you earned after the completion date of the relevant Australian degree.

2. Skill assessment with non-Australian degree

QualificationField of the QualificationIs the Qualification closely related to the nominated occupation?Experience Deduction
Bachelor Degree or HigherICT MajorYes2 Years in last 10 Years OR 4 Years in total experience (anytime) *
No4 Years in total experience (anytime)
ICT MinorYes5 Years in last 10 Years OR 6 Years in total experience (anytime) *
No6 Years in total experience (anytime)
Diploma and Vendor CertificationICT MajorYes5 Years in last 10 Years OR 6 Years in total experience (anytime) *
No6 Years in total experience (anytime)
Non ICT Diploma or Higher DegreeNon ICTNot Applicable6 Years in total experience (anytime) plus an RPL
No tertiary educationNot ApplicableNot Applicable8 Years in total experience (anytime) plus an RPL
* whichever provides the earliest skill date

Experience Before Qualification:
If your work experience is completed before the completion date of your qualification, the Skill Level Requirement Met Date will be determined on the earliest date that BOTH the relevant work experience and the qualifications are completed.

All relevant work experience completed after the Skill Level Requirement Met Date will be considered Skilled Employment and eligible for points under the skilled migration points test.

The work experience required to meet the suitability criteria is NOT included as Skilled Employment and is NOT eligible for points under the skilled migration points test.

Example:
  • You complete 2 years of relevant work experience from Jan 2003 until Jan 2005
  • You complete another 2 years of relevant work experience from Jan 2006 until Jan 2008
  • You complete a 3 year relevant Bachelor degree in Jan 2011
  • You complete a final 1 year of relevant work experience from Jan 2012 until Jan 2013
  • The “Skill Level Requirement Met Date” will be Jan 2011 because this is the date BOTH the relevant work experience AND the relevant qualification are completed
  • Only relevant work experience completed after Jan 2011 is considered “Skilled Employment” and eligible for migration points test
  • All work experience completed before Jan 2011 is NOT eligible for migration points test


ACS Assessment Outcome Sample:
A sample outcome letter of ACS assessment is generally sent in below form (for a case where ACS deducted 4 years):
ACS ASSESSMENT LETTER said:
The following employment after April 2009 is considered to equate to work at an appropriately skilled level and relevant to 000000 (XXXX) of the ANZSCO Code.
Dates: 03/05 - 10/13 (8 yrs 7 mths)

XXX
Dates: 10/13 - 02/16 (2 yrs 4 mths)
XXX

Above statement means that you can claim points for your experience from April 2009. Any experience prior to that has to be declared non-relevant while submitting EOI (thus no points should be claimed).

ICT Major Criteria:
  • A Diploma, Advanced Diploma or Associate degree must have at least 50% ICT content.
    • A Diploma, Advanced Diploma or Associate Degree with ICT content less than 50% is assessed as a Non-ICT qualification.
  • A Bachelor degree must have:
    • 33% ICT content for a 3-year course
    • 25% ICT content for a 4-year course
    • 20% ICT content for a 5-year course
The ICT content must progress through all years of the program with the final year being at an advanced level.
  • A post graduate qualification (Graduate Diploma or Masters) that do not require a Bachelor with an ICT major for entry into the course, must have:
    • A minimum of 3 semesters or at least 1.5 years of full-time study
    • At least 2 semesters or 1 year of full-time equivalent ICT content
    • A minimum of 12 units or subjects (overseas degrees may contain fewer units or subjects)
    • 50% ICT content for a 2-year Graduate Diploma or Masters qualification
    • 33% ICT content for a 3-year Graduate Diploma or Masters qualification
  • A post graduate qualification (Graduate Diploma, Masters or Doctoral qualification) that requires at least a Bachelor qualification with a major in ICT for entry into the course, must have ICT content of at least 33%, all of which must be at post graduate level.

ICT Minor Criteria:

A Bachelor or higher qualification is assessed as a Minor when the ICT content is at least two-thirds of the requirements for a major.

Insufficient ICT Content:

All qualifications with ICT content less than the requirement for a Minor are assessed as Non-ICT qualifications.

Claim points for post-assessment experience:

As long as your ACS assessment remains valid and you continue in the same job with similar responsibilities, you can claim those extra post-assessment experience without any additional assessment.

Detail From ACS Rules Book:
ACS said:
Bachelor Degree or Higher with an ICT Major
  • If your degree is assessed as having an ICT major which is closely related to your nominated occupation, you will require 2 years relevant work experience completed within the past 10 years or 4 years relevant work experience completed anytime in your past work history (whichever provides the earliest skill date) to meet the suitability criteria.
  • If your degree is assessed as having an ICT major which is NOT closely related to your nominated occupation, you will require 4 years relevant work experience completed anytime in your past work history to meet the suitability criteria.

Bachelor Degree or Higher with an ICT Minor
  • If your degree is assessed as having an ICT minor which is closely related to your nominated occupation, you will require 5 years relevant work experience completed in the past 10 years or 6 years relevant work experience completed anytime in your past work history (whichever provides the earliest skill date) to meet the suitability criteria.
  • If your degree is assessed as having an ICT minor which is NOT closely related to your nominated occupation, you will require 6 years relevant work experience completed anytime in your past work history to meet the suitability criteria.

Diploma and Vendor Certification
  • If your Diploma or Vendor Certification is assessed as having an ICT major which is closely related to your nominated occupation, you will require 5 years relevant work experience completed within the past 10 years or 6 years relevant work experience completed anytime in your past work history (whichever provides the earliest skill date) to meet the suitability criteria.
  • If your Diploma or Vendor Certification is assessed as having an ICT major which is NOT closely related to your nominated occupation, you will require 6 years relevant work experience completed anytime in your past work history to meet the suitability criteria.

Non ICT Diploma or Higher
  • If your degree is assessed with insufficient ICT content, you will require 6 years relevant work experience completed anytime in your past work history, plus a suitable Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) application to meet the suitability criteria.

Work Experience Only – Recognition of Prior Learning
  • If you do not hold any tertiary educational qualifications, you will require 8 years relevant work experience completed anytime in your past work history, plus a suitable Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) application to meet the suitability criteria.
 

mahmoud

Wanderer
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Dear Sir,

thanks for the above info,, what is the way to consider my study is related to my occupation or not ,, what is the criteria? for example I have completed my Bsc in information technology (main subjects were programming languages and my occupation is (263111) networking engineer , will it be consider as closely related or not ?

Best Regards,
Mahmoud
 

MysticRiver

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Well, I think that should be related, but ACS to decide, not me :).
 
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Dear Admin,

I have 10 years experience in ICT industry with a non-ICT degree, my ACS assessment with RPL done and ACS equated my experience to 4 years now, so I will get only 5 points for work experience. If I wait for one more year than can I get 10 points? Will ACS consider my RPL with 11 years and equate my experience to 5 years after a year. ( 11 - 6= 5 Years)
 

MysticRiver

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R.A.

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Hi

I am very much confused about ACS suitability criteria.

I have more than 10 years of experience as IT Manager and I need to claim points for 8 years.

Now that ACS deducted 2 years for suitability criteria I am exactly standing at 8 years of experience.

I need state nomination and this requires 3 months.

By the time I go through the whole process it will fall below 8 years, so it seems that 8 years will never be achievable or am I missing something? how will DIBP count my points in this case then?

I received my ACS report a couple of days ago and this is how it reads:

The following employment after July 2008 is considered to equate to work at an appropriately skilled level and relevant to 135199 (ICT Managers nec) of the ANZSCO Code.

Dates: 06/06 - 07/10 (4yrs 1mths)
Position: IT Manager

Dates: 08/10 - 08/11 (1yrs 0mths)
Position: IS Manager

Dates: 09/11 - 09/15 (4yrs 0mths)
Position: IT Director

Dates: 10/15 - 08/16 (0yrs 9mths)
Position: IT Director

Thank you in advance
 

MysticRiver

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I am not sure if I understood your confusion correctly.

While submitting EOI, you can mention your experience since Jul'08 as relevant to claim points. DIBP will accumulate your total experience (in last 10 years) after Jul'08. So, I don't see an issue.
 

R.A.

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I am not sure if I understood your confusion correctly.

While submitting EOI, you can mention your experience since Jul'08 as relevant to claim points. DIBP will accumulate your total experience (in last 10 years) after Jul'08. So, I don't see an issue.

My bad, you are absolutely right, the 10 years will be considered from 2006 while the 8 years points will be claimed from 2008

Thanks a lot!
 

Kamran Baig

Newbie
Messages
4
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3
MSA
2015-12-07
Skill
263111
SC
190
Point
60
EOI
2015-12-10
Sir my query is that someone already have positive skill assessment with ACS can he/she apply for another assessment with different occupation but the skill assessing will remain same.
A got positive skills assessment for occupation 263111. ACS
A wanted to lodge another skill assessment but this time occupation is change but the assessment authority is same.

waiting for ur reply
 

MysticRiver

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Well, I am not sure again, what you are asking. If you meant you want to apply for ACS assessment in different skill occupation, of course that will be okay, just you need to convince ACS that you have enough experience in that new skill. As long as you new skill category is under ACS assessment authority, it will be okay.
 

Shweta

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I need some guidance. I had applied for my ACS skills assessment as system analyst (ANZSCO Code as 261112) . My husband and myself have exactly the same experience and profile and we applied with similar reference letters from our respective companies. We have a total of 8 years of experience. ACS has deducted 5 years for me and 2 years for my husband. We had the very much similar detailed work profile descriptions. Need your suggestions if it is advisable to request for a review on my profile. Appreciate your inputs.
 

MysticRiver

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Well, if you guys have the similar qualification (e.g. educational background) as well, you can request a review. Or, you can apply as a secondary applicant with your husband being the primary applicant, so that your experience is only required to claim extra 5 points from partner's skill.
 

Shweta

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Well, if you guys have the similar qualification (e.g. educational background) as well, you can request a review. Or, you can apply as a secondary applicant with your husband being the primary applicant, so that your experience is only required to claim extra 5 points from partner's skill.
Thanks you for your prompt response. Yes we do have exactly the same educational qualification. I am keen on knowing if you have heard any positive results from ACS review. He may have to take the IELTs / PTE again (for the points) or I may need to get the ACS skills reviewed. so trying to understand which one will give us better chance when re-done.
 

MysticRiver

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Well, I have heard a case where ACS changed the skill upon review. I haven't heard any case where anyone reviewed for wrong assessment in terms of qualifications and experience, but I know cases where ACS did make some mistakes. So, if you and your husband have same background, and more importantly, you think ACS should have deducted 2 years for yourself (forget what was done with your husband, just check the table on the first post of this thread and see how many years they should have deducted), you can ask for review.

Just some advise, before filing a formal review request, reply to you assessor and politely ask about your confusion. And do not argue like, my husband/friend had this so I should had this, rather explain your opinion precisely and in short.

One last thing, if you plan to claim 5 points for partner's skill, your husband needs to appear in IELTS anyway.

http://www.migrationdesk.com/threads/claiming-points-for-partner-skills.41419/
 

Harsimran

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Hi Team

I have done diploma in textiles and then 3 years degree in computers and applyung for acs for software engineer. Can anyone tell id i need to give my diploma details as well or not becuase my degree semester starts from 3rd.
 

MysticRiver

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I don't understand your question. You said you have the diploma, and again said your semester starts from 3rd (of what?)/

Anyway, If your have a diploma in computers, you can just provide that.
 

Nadeesh

Commoner
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56
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MSA
2015-10-27
Skill
261311
SC
190/189
Point
65/60
EOI
2016-12-04
@ MysticRiver - In October 2015, I received the ACS skills Assessment with deduction of 2 years and therefore I can not claim 5 points for experience at the moment. But in November this year, my total experience will reach 5 years hence even after deducting 2 years by ACS still there will be 3 years of skilled employment.
My question is do I need to apply for another skills assessment from ACS to obtain a document reflecting that change OR is it enough to have service letters from my office along with previous skills assessment results sheet, in case I will be invited in the future ?

Thanks.
 

MysticRiver

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Sathish

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Hi,

Please help me with the suitability criteria and qualifying points for below scenario. I have non ICT bachelor degree.

1999-2002 - BA economics, however completed bachelors only on April 2008 due to backlogs.

ICS business analyst Experience gained with various companies.

07/2004 to 06/2009 (4 Yrs 11 Months)
10/2009 to 11/2010( 1yr 1 month)
11/2010 to till date -09/16 ( 5yr 10 Month)

I would like to know if ACS will consider experience gained before graduation, I understand that i will not be getting any points for those expereince but will they consider it for sutabilty criteria.

Please let me know from which year will they consider it for points.

Regards,
Sathish
 

MysticRiver

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Yes, your pre graduation experience will be counted in meeting suitability criteria, thougj as you correctly said, you won't be able to claim any points for those.
 
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