Australian skills assessment guide: Engineers Australia, ACS, VETASSESS, and all assessing authorities

This guide is for skilled professionals planning to apply for a General Skilled Migration visa (subclass 189, 190, or 491) who need to understand the skills assessment process. It covers the six major assessing authorities, what each evaluates, how deduction rules work, common evidence requirements, and what to do if an assessment is negative or expires while in the SkillSelect pool. It is also relevant for anyone whose EOI has not been invited and who suspects their points calculation may be incorrect because of an employment deduction they did not account for.

This guide is not for employer-sponsored visa applicants (subclass 482, 186, 494) — employer-sponsored visas have different skills assessment requirements that are occupation- and stream-specific. It is not a substitute for the assessment guidelines published by each assessing authority on their own website — those guidelines are the controlling documents for the evidence requirements specific to your occupation. Always read your authority's current guidelines before preparing your evidence package, as requirements change periodically.

Each ANZSCO occupation is assigned to one designated assessing authority. You cannot choose which authority to use — the Department of Home Affairs assigns each occupation to a specific authority, and that authority alone can issue a valid skills assessment for that occupation code. The six major authorities cover the vast majority of skilled migration applicants:

• Engineers Australia: All professional engineering occupations (civil, mechanical, electrical, chemical, structural, software — when classified as an engineering occupation rather than ICT). Also covers engineering technologists and engineering associates. Australia is a signatory to the Washington Accord, Sydney Accord, and Dublin Accord — if your engineering degree is from an accredited programme in a signatory country, the assessment pathway is streamlined.
• Australian Computer Society (ACS): All ICT occupations — software engineer (when classified as ICT), developer programmer, ICT business analyst, systems analyst, network administrator, security specialist, and related roles. ACS applies the most significant employment deduction rules of any assessing authority.
• VETASSESS: The largest assessing authority by occupational coverage. Assesses most managerial, professional, and associate professional occupations not covered by a specialist authority — including marketing specialists, accountants, HR managers, architects, librarians, social workers, and hundreds of others. VETASSESS also assesses trade occupations in certain categories.
• ANMAC (Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council): All nursing and midwifery occupations. Requires registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) or an equivalent registration pathway.
• AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership): All teaching occupations — early childhood, primary, and secondary. Requires a teaching qualification that includes a supervised teaching practice component.
• TRA (Trades Recognition Australia): Trade occupations — electricians, plumbers, carpenters, chefs, motor mechanics, and other skilled trades. Assessment pathways include the Job Ready Program (for onshore applicants) and the Migration Skills Assessment (for offshore applicants).

Other specialist assessing authorities exist for specific occupations — for example, the Australian Psychological Society (APS) for psychologists, the Australian Institute of Medical Scientists (AIMS) for medical laboratory scientists, and the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council (AVBC) for veterinarians. If your occupation is not covered by one of the six major authorities, check the Home Affairs skilled occupation list, which identifies the assessing authority for each ANZSCO code.

Engineers Australia assesses professional engineers, engineering technologists, and engineering associates. The assessment pathway depends on whether your qualification is from an accredited programme:

• Accredited qualifications (Accord pathway): If your engineering degree is from a programme accredited under the Washington Accord (professional engineer), Sydney Accord (engineering technologist), or Dublin Accord (engineering associate) in a signatory country, the assessment is streamlined. You submit your degree certificate, transcript, and proof of accreditation. No Competency Demonstration Report (CDR) is required.
• Non-accredited qualifications (CDR pathway): If your degree is not from an Accord-accredited programme — or if the accreditation status is unclear — you must submit a Competency Demonstration Report. The CDR consists of three career episodes, each describing a specific engineering project or task you completed, written in the first person and demonstrating how you applied engineering knowledge and skills. Each episode must be 1,000-2,500 words. A summary statement cross-references each episode against the Engineers Australia competency elements. A Continuing Professional Development (CPD) list details your professional development activities.

The CDR is not a CV or a list of achievements — it is a narrative demonstrating engineering competency through specific, verifiable examples. Engineers Australia assesses the CDR against the Australian Engineering Competency Standards. The most common CDR failure is treating it as a project description rather than a competency demonstration — Engineers Australia wants to know what you did, how you applied engineering principles, and what the outcome was, not just that the project existed. The second most common failure is writing episodes that are too short or generic. If your degree is 4 years or longer and from a recognised institution, the assessment typically takes 8-12 weeks; the CDR pathway takes longer than the accredited pathway.

The ACS skills assessment for ICT occupations applies employment deduction rules that are more aggressive than any other assessing authority. The deduction is applied to determine your deemed skilled date — the date from which your employment counts as skilled for points test purposes. The deduction depends on your qualification:

• ICT major bachelor degree or higher, closely related to the nominated occupation: 2 years deducted from the last 10 years of employment, OR 4 years deducted from total employment (whichever results in the earlier deemed skilled date).
• ICT major bachelor degree or higher, not closely related to the nominated occupation: 4 years deducted.
• ICT minor bachelor degree or higher: 5 years deducted for closely related; 6 years for not closely related.
• Non-ICT qualification at diploma level or higher: 6 years deducted, plus you need an additional Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) application demonstrating ICT knowledge.
• No tertiary qualification: 8 years deducted, plus RPL.

The deduction is taken from post-qualification employment — the years of work experience after you completed the qualification that determines the deduction category. The ACS uses a specific definition of 'ICT major' based on the proportion of ICT content in the degree (typically 33% or more for a bachelor degree). If your degree transcript does not clearly show the ICT content, ACS may classify the qualification lower than expected, increasing the deduction. Employment reference letters must include the start and end dates (day/month/year), a detailed description of duties, the hours worked per week, the country of employment, and the company letterhead. A letter that states only a job title and dates is insufficient.

Example: A software developer holds an ICT major bachelor degree (2-year deduction) and has 7 years of post-qualification experience. ACS deducts 2 years, resulting in a deemed skilled date 2 years after graduation and 5 years of skilled employment for points test purposes. The applicant can claim 10 points for 5-7 years of skilled overseas employment — not 15 points for 8-10 years.

VETASSESS assesses both qualifications and employment. The assessment has two components: qualification assessment (is your degree comparable to an Australian Qualifications Framework level?) and employment assessment (is your employment at the required skill level for the nominated occupation?). For most professional occupations, VETASSESS requires at least one year of post-qualification employment at the required skill level that is highly relevant to the nominated occupation. This one year is deducted from your total employment for points test purposes — it is the 'deeming period' that establishes your deemed skilled date. Additional years beyond the deeming period count as skilled employment.

VETASSESS evaluates employment relevance using ANZSCO task descriptions. Employment in an occupation that shares some duties with the nominated occupation but is not highly relevant may be downgraded or excluded. The employment reference letter must describe duties in enough detail for VETASSESS to map them to ANZSCO tasks. A four-line description is insufficient — the letter should describe specific projects, responsibilities, and outcomes that align with the ANZSCO occupation description. Payslips, tax documents, and bank statements are required to substantiate the employment period — the reference letter alone is not sufficient evidence of employment duration. VETASSESS is the most document-intensive assessing authority, and incomplete or generic employment references are the most common cause of a negative or downgraded assessment.

ANMAC assesses nursing and midwifery occupations. The core requirements are: a nursing or midwifery qualification that meets Australian standards, current registration (or eligibility for registration) with the NMBA, and English language proficiency demonstrated through an approved test (IELTS Academic 7.0 in each band, or equivalent, with results combined from two sittings permitted under certain conditions). ANMAC also assesses post-registration nursing experience for points test purposes, but the assessment itself focuses primarily on the qualification and registration — employment verification is a secondary component. The NMBA registration process is separate from the ANMAC skills assessment, though the two are coordinated. Nurses must complete both processes before an EOI can be submitted.

AITSL assesses teaching occupations. The key requirement is a teaching qualification at the bachelor level or higher that includes a supervised teaching practice component of at least 45 days with students across the relevant age range in a school setting. The supervised practice must be documented in the academic transcript or a separate letter from the institution. A teaching qualification without a supervised practice component — common in some countries where teaching practice is completed after graduation as a probationary period rather than as part of the degree — does not meet the AITSL requirement. AITSL also requires an English language test result (IELTS Academic 7.0 in reading and writing, 8.0 in speaking and listening, or equivalent) — this is a higher standard than the general GSM English threshold and is specific to teaching assessments.

Chen is a 31-year-old IT professional from Singapore with a Bachelor of Computing (4-year) from the National University of Singapore and 8 years of experience as a systems analyst at two Singaporean banks. He applies to ACS for a skills assessment for ANZSCO 261112 (Systems Analyst). His degree is assessed as an ICT major bachelor degree closely related to the nominated occupation. ACS applies a 2-year deduction, setting his deemed skilled date at 2 years after graduation and leaving 6 years of skilled employment. The ACS outcome letter confirms: positive assessment, ANZSCO 261112, deemed skilled date of January 2019, skilled employment from January 2019 to present (6 years). Chen submits his EOI claiming 10 points for overseas skilled employment (5-7 years) rather than the 15 points he initially expected for 8 years — the 2-year ACS deduction reduces his employment points. His total points score is calculated using the points test guide at the correct employment bracket. The 2-point difference may affect whether his EOI reaches the competitive threshold for his occupation, so he checks the current invitation round data for Systems Analyst before submitting.

• Underestimating the ACS deduction. An applicant with 8 years of IT experience and a computing degree may assume they have 8 years of skilled employment. ACS typically deducts 2 years, leaving 6. This reduces the employment points bracket and can drop the total score below the competitive threshold. Always calculate your score using the deemed skilled date, not your total employment period.
• Submitting generic employment reference letters. ACS and VETASSESS require detailed duty descriptions that map to ANZSCO tasks. A letter that says 'worked as a software engineer' without describing specific projects, tools, responsibilities, and outcomes will result in the employment being excluded or downgraded. Provide your referee with the ANZSCO task description for your occupation and ask them to address each relevant task with a specific example from your work.
• Applying under the wrong ANZSCO code. The occupation you nominate must match the occupation your experience supports. An IT professional whose experience is in business analysis should nominate ICT Business Analyst (261111), not Software Engineer (261313), even if the latter sounds more appealing. A mismatch between your employment duties and the nominated ANZSCO description results in a negative assessment.
• Letting the assessment expire in the SkillSelect pool. Skills assessments are valid for 3 years. If your EOI sits uninvited for 2.5 years and your assessment expires, you must obtain a new one and update the EOI. The new assessment may apply different deduction rules based on your updated employment history, and the outcome may change. Monitor the expiry date and plan for a re-assessment at least 4 months before expiry.
• Confusing professional registration with a skills assessment. For nursing (NMBA registration) and teaching (teacher registration), the professional registration is a component of the skills assessment, not a substitute for it. You must complete both the registration and the ANMAC or AITSL skills assessment before submitting an EOI. Holding NMBA registration without an ANMAC assessment does not satisfy the GSM skills assessment requirement.