Skilled (175) - Degree & Work experience in different fields?

[App.Packager]

Hi,

This is my first post here.

I am an Electronics & Communication Engineering Graduate working in IT industry.

I've been told by an agent that I can't apply for a Skilled visa because my degree (Electronics) and work experience (IT) are in different fields. IS that true?

If yes is this valid for other type of visas like 176?


Thanks in advance.
John

[tilla_07]

before applying for my 175, I had my work experience checked out by an agent. He said while my degree could be both an Electrical engineering and Electronics engineering (my uni did not see a difference between them, they both fall under the electrical engineering category at my university), my work experience clearly goes as an electrical engineering as my experience was in power engineering. Thus he told me that if I want to apply, I must have correct work experience, meaning my job has to be related to or fall under the electrical engineering category.

It's like this, since I never knew that there was a difference between an electrical engineering and an electronics engineering, I went and checked out the job descriptions and duties under both of them. As my degree says that I am an electrical engineer (even though I had no courses in power, but mostly in signal processing or computer engineering), my degree was evaluated as that of an electrical engineer ASCO 2125-11 by Engineers Australia since I declared myself to be evaluated as an electrical engineer. Therefore, my job had to be in the field of an electrical engineer, not computer engineer or network engineer since that is what they ssaid that my degree is.

So, let me ask you this, since electronics/electrical engineering could fall under the IT field if taken enough courses to prove that you also could declare yourself to be an IT person, maybe if you apply to ACS to get your degree evaluated, they could declare that your degree could fall under one of their categories? So, either bend your degree qualifications (with certificates/IT related courses taken in uni) enough that it proves that you could be declared for an IT field and have the right assessing body declare it to match to your career, or even though you work in the IT field, maybe your work could be related to electronics and communications engineering (check out your job duties against that of an electronics and communications engineer to match them) that you won't have any issues when it comes to degree not matching career.

I am not sure about 176, but I was under the impression that same rules apply as above. I mean, yes, if they need your skills they will nominate you for their state, but fundamentally, doesn't your job and your degree need to match for enough points to be allocated to your application?

[amaslam]

Hi John:

I think since the work you have been doing is IT then it's ACS who has to assess you for RPL. Do you have 4 yrs experience in IT and do you also fall into the CSL specialties (i.e. Java, C#, SAP, CISSP, etc.).

Your degree would be more relevant to the skills assessment if you were applying as an Engineer, but if you don't have work experience in Engineering then that assessment would probably not succeed.


Whichever assessment you do it is valid for the skills portion of any visa (175, 176, etc.)

Good luck

Originally Posted by App.Packager

Hi,

This is my first post here.

I am an Electronics & Communication Engineering Graduate working in IT industry.

I've been told by an agent that I can't apply for a Skilled visa because my degree (Electronics) and work experience (IT) are in different fields. IS that true?

If yes is this valid for other type of visas like 176?


Thanks in advance.
John

[anj1976]

Well, you can go for RPL if you do not have the degree in the same field. But my suggestion would be to talk to few other agents. just make sure the agent is MARA/MIA registered.

[App.Packager]

Sorry guys, I was out of town.

Thanks tilla_07 for the reply.

@ amaslam & anj:

I have only 3 years experience and I'm working on Windows installer ( more of a windows networking + software installation type job). I am not sure if this is included in a list like CSL.

My Bachelors degree in electronics includes a lot of computer related stuff e.g. C-Programming, Digital electronics, 8085 & 8086 assembly programming, computer networking, matlab & both my projects were computer-hardware interfaces with lots of coding involved. So can I project these for my assessment?


Thanks in advance for the help & support.

John

[amaslam]

Hi:

You might not meet the min work experience (and I don't think you'd get CSL). You normally need 4 yrs work experience. The only way your project experience in Uni counts is if it was nearly full time and the end result was for a commercial purpose.

I would not suggest an app this year, but after 1 more year of experience. You might want to do one of the CSL specialties in that year to get 12 months or more experience and get CSL points.

Originally Posted by App.Packager

Sorry guys, I was out of town.

Thanks tilla_07 for the reply.

@ amaslam & anj:

I have only 3 years experience and I'm working on Windows installer ( more of a windows networking + software installation type job). I am not sure if this is included in a list like CSL.

My Bachelors degree in electronics includes a lot of computer related stuff e.g. C-Programming, Digital electronics, 8085 & 8086 assembly programming, computer networking, matlab & both my projects were computer-hardware interfaces with lots of coding involved. So can I project these for my assessment?


Thanks in advance for the help & support.

John

[App.Packager]

Thanks amaslam. I guess I will wait for sometime and try to get my Masters in IT.

So if I get a Masters in IT & after that get 12 months experience in my current domain itself, is there any chance of meeting the point criteria?

It's because I love my current work and not planning to change to another career path for getting experience from CSL.

Please advice.