Subclass 189 Experience Deduction during ACS assessment for ICT Minor

[RKiran]

Dear Admin,

I have a ICT Minor (Graduated in Mechanical Engineering), post which have been in IT for approx 15.5 years now. I have held various roles from a Trainee to software developer to Senior Project Manager / Business Analyst. All the experience has been with the same IT company. I am currently applying for Australian PR for Business Analyst.

I understand that 6 years of my experience will be deducted towards the skill requirement. Ideally i should be provided with 9.5 years of claimable experience right ? (15.5 - 6). I recently submitted my RPL and received my assessment. In my assessment, they have deducted 12 years (approx) claiming that my initial experience of 6 years ( In Developer and Senior Developer roles) as invalid. Post which they have deducted another 6 years ( Starting with my role as Associate Project Manager), leaving me with only 3 years of claimable experience equating to 5 points.

I have friends who have similar software programmer start to their careers then moving into Managerial / Business Analyst roles and claiming experience in their ACS assessment. This assessment has completely thrown me off-guard and my overall points have dropped from 75 to 65, severely denting the time frame of receiving my Visa.

Is there an opportunity to submit for Review ? Why was my case assessed differently from others and have there been any new rules that I might have missed ? I believe anyone with a ICT minor will need an entry point into the ICT world and then build careers as Business Analysts. It seems unfair to rule out the initial experience as invalid.

Kindly advice.

 

[MysticRiver]

It's real tough for an outsider to comment on whether all of your 15.5 years experience is relevant experience as Business Analyst. From your post where you say you have been working in diverse roles, it is possible that some of your roles are not related to BA, in which case ACS will discard those part. In my knowledge, there is no recent change in the rule. You should review only if you think you can argue that all your experiences are relevant to BA.

 

[RKiran]

Hi Mystic River,

I am not arguing all the experience is relevant to BA, I am saying that my initial experience is certainly part of the closely related Core ICT units of Business Analyst. Find attached code description for Business Analyst, Leaving the core responsibilities aside (Those map to my current role), I have highlighted all the closely related ICT core units which is actually what I did during my initial years of induction into ICT.

My experience letter that was submitted only outlines my latest responsibilities, the assessor in this case has made an assumption on my roles and responsibilities during my initial years and deemed it to be invalid purely based on the designation which says developer. Its certainly not as if I was into a completely irrelevant field like say Mechanical or Production Engineering in which case I would have bought the argument.

This decision will be one that defines the next steps of my career and am deeply concerned about it.

 

[MysticRiver]

I am a bit confused. At the first sentence you said you are not arguing your experience to be closely related to BA, but then you are saying your initial work is closely related to the core responsibilities of BA. I am not from your field, so I can't judge if it is or not. But what I can tell you is, if your initial job responsibilities are closely related to the job description of a BA, produce a separate experience letter for that part and send it to your CO for an informal review. Explain to him that your initial job responsibilities are also BA related.