Application pathways for migration skills assessment

Ellie Tondon
3 min readMay 11, 2022

Engineers must pass the Migration Skills Assessment Program before applying for a permanent skilled migration visa to Australia (MSA). It is a detailed review of your qualifications and works history to evaluate whether they are comparable to Australian criteria for a skilled worker in your chosen profession.

Engineers who do not have Australian credentials or credentials from countries that have joined the Washington, Sydney, or Dublin Accords must go through the Migration Skills Assessment process. Those that fall into this category must follow the CDR route.

CDR stands for Competency Demonstration Report, and engineers use it to demonstrate to Australian authorities that they have the skills and competencies required for skilled migration to Australia.

Different pathways for migration skills assessment

There are five migration skills assessment pathways for engineers who want to migrate to Australia:

Accredited qualifications

  1. Australian Qualifications
  2. Washington Qualifications
  3. Sydney Accord Qualifications
  4. Dubin Accord Qualifications

Non-Accredited qualifications

  1. Competency Demonstration Report (CDR)

Accredited Qualifications

Under the Accords, qualifications gained in a signatory country may be considered for accreditation. Only qualifications earned in or after the year the land was granted full signatory status to the Accords are eligible for certification.

Australian Qualifications

The Australian Engineering Qualifications application pathway allows graduates of approved Australian engineering programs to put their migration abilities to the test. Applicants with recognized Australian qualifications gained outside of Australia must submit IELTSTM, TOEFL iBT, or PTE ACADEMIC exam results.

Through the Australian Engineering Qualifications application pathway, graduates of accredited Australian Associate Degree or Advanced Diploma programs can also apply for the Engineering Associate category.

Washington Accord Qualifications

The Washington Accord will consider publicly stated qualifications that the relevant signatory has accredited for recognition. Your qualification’s title should correspond to the title of the appropriate signatory’s published list of authorized qualifications.

The Washington Accord requires minimal academic qualifications, roughly equivalent to a four-year bachelor’s degree in engineering in Australia.

The Sydney Accord

The Sydney Accord will consider for recognition publicly-listed qualifications that the relevant signatory has accredited. Your qualification’s title should correspond to the title of the appropriate signatory’s public list of approved qualifications.

The Sydney Accord requires minimal academic standards, roughly equivalent to a three-year Bachelor of Technology degree in engineering in Australia.

The Dublin Accord

The Dublin Accord will review publicly-listed qualifications as accredited by the applicable signatory for recognition. Your qualification’s title should correspond to the title of the appropriate signatory’s public list of approved qualifications.

The Dublin Accord requires minimal academic standards, roughly equivalent to a two-year Advanced Diploma or Associate Degree in engineering in Australia.

Non-Accredited qualifications

Non-accredited courses are not affiliated with any external accreditation or professional organization. These classes are good for acquiring a new skill set or improving your current abilities.

Non-accredited courses are designed to give students particular knowledge and abilities, and they will help you improve your resume. Non-accredited qualifications do not lead to pursuing a professional job with possible credentials behind your name; instead, accredited qualifications are required.

Only MSA approves qualifications from Australia or full nations signatories to the Sydney Accord, Dublin Accord, and Washington Accord. Others must submit a Competency Demonstration Report (CDR) to Engineers Australia (EA) for migration skills assessment.

To sup up, for non-accredited courses, you have to submit CDR to Engineers Australia. For quality and perfect CDR and other related documents, you can contact CDRWritersAustralia.

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