Engineering & associated Professionals
Information for Engineering professionals regarding visas and immigration to Australia.
Engineers Guide
Engineers Australia recognises three occupational categories in the Engineering Team in Australia:
- Professional Engineer
- Engineering Technologist
- Engineering Associate
OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES IN THE ENGINEERING TEAM
The following section describes the occupational categories in the engineering team. This may assist you in determining the occupational category to which you belong.
Professional Engineer
Academic qualification is a four – year bachelor of engineering degree gained after 12 years of schooling, or equivalent.
The Professional Engineer:
- Focuses on overall systems
- Develops and applies new engineering practices
- Applies leadership & management skills
- Pursues engineering opportunities in a holistic way taking environmental, community & social issues into account.
- Solves diverse problems
Professional Engineers score 60 points on the points test
Engineering Technologist
Academic qualification is a three – year bachelor of engineering technology degree gained after 12 years of schooling, or equivalent.
The Engineering Technologist:
- Focuses on interactions within the system
- Modifies and adapts established engineering practices
- Advances engineering technology
Engineering Associate
Academic qualification is a two – year diploma of engineering gained after 12 years of schooling, or equivalent.
The Engineering Associate:
- Focuses on specific elements of the system
- Works within and applies established practices & procedures.
Eligibility
You must meet the following requirements before proceeding with your application for assessment of your qualifications:
- An appropriate academic qualification (see above).
- Engineering work experience, in accordance with the General Skilled Migration requirements.
- Certified evidence of assessment under the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or equivalent to level 6 for each of the 4 IELTS categories.
- Where applicable, certified evidence of registration under the relevant licensing authority in the country in which you are working.
Recognition of Qualifications – for migration skills assessments:
For overseas qualifications”
- you will need to determine if the country of origin of your qualification is a full signatory of the Washington, Sydney or Dublin accord, and refer to the list of accredited courses provided by the relevant signatory body. The full list of signatory organisations is available on the website of the International Engineering Alliance.
Holders of non-accredited qualifications
- will need to submit a competency demonstration report.
Work Experience
The following conditions for the assessment of Work Experience as an additional service are to be noted:
- work experience must be relevant to the assessed outcome, in terms of occupation and engineering category
- work experience cannot be claimed before completion of the applicable qualification
- work experience should be paid at the market or salaried rate for engineering professionals. Clients receiving stipends, living allowances or scholarships will not generally be considered to be salaried
- whilst ‘full-time’ work constitutes 20 hours per week or more, this must be regular employment and not include long periods of unpaid leave
- in general, research activities undertaken as a PhD student, or work experience as a Research Assistant/Fellow whilst undertaking a PhD can not usually be assessed as relevant for this purpose
The Washington Accord
The Washington Accord is an agreement between the engineering accreditation bodies, listed below, to recognise as substantially equivalent the professional engineering degrees delivered in those countries. The Accord applies only to accreditations conducted by the signatories within their respective national or territorial boundaries.
The following countries are signatories to the Accord
- Australia: Engineers Australia
- Canada: The Canadian Accreditation Board of the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers
- Hong Kong: The Hong KongInstitution of Engineers
- Ireland: Institution of Engineers of Ireland
- New Zealand: Institution of Professional Engineers, New Zealand
- South Africa: The Engineering Council of South Africa
- United Kingdom : The Engineering Council
- United States of America: The Engineering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.
- Sri Lanka: The Institution of Engineers
- India: National Board of Accreditation
- Russia: Russian Association for Engineering Education
- Turkey: MÜDEK
- Japan: Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education
- Korea: Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea
- Malaysia: Board of Engineers Malaysia
The following countries have provisional signatory status and may become member signatories in the future:
Bangladesh – (Board of Accreditation for Engineering and Technical Education)
Germany – (German Accreditation Agency for Study Programs in Engineering and Informatics)
Pakistan – (Pakistan Engineering Council)
Philippines – (Philippine Technological Council)
Peru – (ICACIT)
Please note:
The Accord only applies to professional engineering degrees accredited and delivered in the signatory countries.
The Accord does not apply to:
- Qualifications at lower academic levels or
- Postgraduate qualifications in engineering.
If you consider your qualifications fall under the Washington Accord, you must complete the Washington Accord application form and provide the required documentation and assessment fee.
Your qualifications will be checked with the relevant Washington Accord accreditation body. If your qualifications are not accredited under the Washington Accord, you will be required to submit a Competency Demonstration Report.
Competency Demonstration Report
The Competency Demonstration Report (CDR) provides you with the opportunity to establish that your engineering knowledge and competencies are equivalent to those of the appropriate occupational category within the engineering team in Australia.
