So what’s this RPL thing all about?

Australia / July 20, 2005 / John / 0

A lot of people are put off going down the migration to Australia route, particularly in the IT field, because they don’t have a degree. The Australian Government migration site states quite clearly that a degree is a basic requirement. Well, it actually says that a “recognised tertiary qualification” is a requirement, but let’s not split hairs.

There is,, however, a bit of fine print that I think some people miss – I certainly did when I was first researching a few years back. In some sectors (IT being one of them) you can still get the full 60 points for an occupation on the skills shortage list if you have sufficient experience in the field. This experience is assessed by the relevant body (for IT skills, it’s the Australian Computer Society) and they will give you a letter stating that you are suitable / unsuitable for migration under a specific category. This process is known as “Recognition of Prior Learning” and functions in a similar way to the process of gaining exemption from study courses at university.

This is the process I’ve just completed, and all my stuff is ready to be sent to the ACS for assessement. Here’s what’s involved:

A covering letter, explaining who you are, what you’ve done and why you’re applying.

A completed ACS Application Form – detailing your education history and your job history.

A completed RPL Application Form – this is the biggie. This form comes with a number of sections, and mine ended up being about 20,000 words long. It starts off with a list of jobs you’ve performed, detailing the main duties of the job and listing anything you’d consider a major achievment in that job – something you’re particularly proud of. Next comes the education section. Education isn’t just “I did this course at that college”, but can also include “I learned this skill by studying that book while working at this employer”. Once these are in, you start working through the “Core Body of Knowledge”. This is a group of subjects which the ACS (quite rightly) have agreed are requirements to an understanding of IT and IT issues. For each of these subjects, you write an essay explaining what you know about the topic, how you learned what you know, and how you have applied that learning in your career.

Project Reports – you need two of these. These should detail large projects with which you have been involved, explaining the processes, work, and outcomes of the project along with a breakdown of which areas of the Core Body of Knowledge were applicable and what you learned.

References from each of your employers.

It’s very important that all of these things cros reference – for example, it should be obvious from your CV that you have been involved in the projects listed in the project reports. The references are particularly important as the ACS are looking for information which can be verified. I can easily write that I wrote the software that powers the space shuttle, but if my references don’t back that up (which they don’t cos I didn’t :)) then it’s pointless.

The process isn’t difficult – if you’ve done the work you’re claiming you’ve done then it’ll be easy to write about it. The difficulty is in sticking at it.

Anyway – mine is about to be sent off, once I’ve gathered the last few references, so we’ll see how it goes. If you want to get in touch about this subject, we can be contacted by email at jmd at nelefa dot org.

John

UNIX geek, wannabe cook, musician, book-lover, and all round good-guy.