VETASSESS – New Skills Assessment Criteria for Divers

VETASSESS has revised the assessment criteria for occupational divers who require a skills assessment for migration purposes.

Traditionally, occupational divers who wished to migrate to Australia were required to hold a Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualification in order to submit a migration application, something which was extremely difficult to obtain since the majority of divers in this situation had completed their training internationally and were not eligible to receive a VET qualification.

In August 2022, VETASSESS removed the certificate-level qualification requirement after discussions with ADAS Executive Director, Amanda Sordes.  Amanda confirmed to VETASSESS that “skilled divers are in demand and many divers have wanted to bring their skills to Australia but found that while their skills were highly valued in the industry, they were not recognised for migration purposes”.

ADAS and VETASSESS worked together to develop new assessment options which include:

• Hold a VET qualification recognised by the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), or
• Hold a current ADAS diver certification and have at least two (2) years of highly relevant employment undertaken in the last five (5) years

This change took effect on 15^th August 2022 and will be beneficial to many internationally trained divers and to Australian contractors alike.

More information can be found on the VETASSESS website, and a detailed guide can be found on the VETASSESS Diver Information Sheet.