TRADES RECOGNITION AUSTRATILA – NEW ASSESSMENT POLICY (W.E.F. SEPTEMBER 1, 2008):
New Assessment Policy - Under 2.26B(2) of the Migration Regulations 1994, Trades Recognition Australia (TRA) has the authority to determine the standards against which the skills of a person are assessed for pre-migration purposes.
Currently, TRA applies a Uniform Assessment Criteria (a ‘Skill Pathways’ approach) to its skills assessments.
On 4 September 2007, TRA suspended the former Skill Pathway D of the Uniform Assessment Criteria (UAC) pending a full review of TRA’s assessment criteria. Since then, TRA has undertaken a comprehensive review of its assessment criteria, policy, and operational and service delivery arrangements. The review has led to the development of the TRA Migration Assessment Policy (MAP) which replaces the UAC.
Key Elements of the MAP
• sets out TRA’s assessment standards and procedures
• outlines TRA’s policy for dealing with feedback reviews, and appeals
• provides information on TRA’s fees and processing times
• provides information on the types of evidence TRA requires of applicants, and
• provides information on the range of tools used by TRA to make its assessment decisions.
Benefits of the MAP
• it provides new opportunities for people to demonstrate their skills and meet TRA’s assessment requirements
• the new Skill Streams approach is simpler than the UAC’s Pathways approach making it easier to understand TRA’s training and employment requirements
• it provides a client service focussed review and appeal process, and
• it provides clear definitions of terms used by TRA.
Transition Arrangements
It is TRA’s intention that all applications, including review applications received on or after 1 September 2008 will be assessed against the MAP.
Other Changes
From 1 September 2008 applicants can also:
• receive an email notification that TRA has received their application
• check the progress of their skills assessment online, and
• view and print their TRA outcome letters on-line.