Overseas skills recognition

If you gained most of your skills and work experience when you were living overseas, skills recognition can be a great option for you.

One of the benefits of skills recognition is that it does not matter how or where you acquired your skills and experience as long as you can demonstrate you have them, and that they are of the correct standard and relevance. The your skills and gaps page has more information on this.

When it comes time to collect evidence to support your application you need to apply the four rules of evidence for skills recognition. Evidence must be:

• current
• authentic
• valid
• sufficient

Many Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) provide specific advice for people who have acquired their skills and experience overseas. For example TAFE NSW has Multicultural Education Coordinators who you can contact directly.

Some of the larger RTOs may be able to provide translation assistance.

Want to know more about skills recognition? Why not read what is recognition?

Recognising qualifications from overseas for work purposes

If you have trained in a specific area overseas you may want to find out if you can get recognition in New South Wales before you attempt skills recognition or Recognition of Prior Learning. To do that you will need to contact the relevant professional overseeing body.

You can search a list of professions and trades for professional bodies at the Department of Immigration and Citizenship website.

If you are not able to get your qualification recognised in Australia you may like to use skills recognition to bridge your skills or even consider a new area to work in. You could complete further study at an RTO or University.

Recognising qualifications from overseas for study purposes.

Sometimes people who have achieved their qualification overseas would like to use it for Recognition of Prior Learning in a course or qualification.

While this is possible, it can be complicated due to the variance in course outcomes depending on country, qualification and level of qualification. Because of this, it is best to go straight to an RTO and talk to an assessor about your specific situation. You can find an RTO in your local area using the self evaluation tool.

Recognising qualifications from overseas for migration purposes

Skillsrecognition.nsw.gov.au is designed for people who currently live in New South Wales, Australia.

This site does not provide information about getting your existing trade or skills recognised for migration purposes. You may find the following external sites useful however.

Department of Immigration and Citizenship This page of the Australian Skills Recognition Information section of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship's site explains who the site can help.

Department of Immigration and Citizenship This page provides an overview of overseas related skills recognition in Australia.

Workplace.gov.au The Australian Government also provides information about Trades Recognition Australia and skills assessment for people intending to migrate to Australia.

Workplace.gov.au This site provides information about Australian accreditation licensing and registration contacts.

The National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition This is an Australian Government service that advises on how Australian and overseas qualifications compare to help overseas qualified people study and work in Australia.

Vetassess This is an RTO that provides qualification assessments for people applying to migrate to Australia under the Australian Government's General Skilled Migration Program and Employer Nomination Scheme.