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The TRA job ready program applies to people living in Australia who wish to apply for skills assessment in a trade occupation.

Stage 1: Provisional Skills Assessment

The provisional skills assessment requires applicants to show 6 months of work experience, 6 minimum in IELTS and an Australian Certificate III qualification.

The following clarifications have been made by TRA:

• You must have worked for the equivalent of 2 days per week over a 6-month period.
• Work can be counted if it is part of the course - for example an industry placement - providing it is in a commercial environment rather than work on the premises of an educational institution.
• Overseas work experience cannot count - the work must be in an Australian workplace.
• Unpaid work can count, providing it is legally conduced.
• The level of work experience expected is at about the 1st/2nd year apprentice level. For example, work as a kitchen hand may be counted for a skills assessment as a cook.
• IELTS results up to 2 years old can be submitted.
• If you had your skills assessment prior through TRA prior to 1 January 2010, you can provide the old assessment and IELTS results. In this case, you would lodge electronically and the fee would be waived
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Stage 2: Job Ready Employment

The second stage requires the applicant to work for 12 months with an employer who has registered the employment with TRA. It also will involve workplace training dealing with language used in the workplace, unions and award system.

TRA has advised as follows in relation to the second stage:

• Full time work experience would usually mean 38 hours per week. Part time work experience will not be accepted.
• Salary level - must be paid in accordance with industry awards.
• The "contract" referred to on TRA website would more accurately be described an agreement signed by the employer to participate in the program.
• Change of employer is possible during this period.
• A monthly logbook will need to be completed by employer - this will be done online.
• Monitoring will be conducted on a risk assessment basis - to determine whether the workplace is genuine and the employment is genuine.
• Self-employment will not satisfy requirements

Stage 3: Workplace Assessment

The third stage of the process is to have your skills tested by a workplace assessor. This stage can be arranged once you have been working full time in your occupation for 6 months:

• The workplace assessment will generally take about 1 day. However, if a review is required, a second day may be involved.
• You will be expected to be able to show the full range of duties involved in the trade in the test

Stage 4: Final Assessment

The final part is to apply to the TRA to issue the final skills assessment. Exact details on what documentation will be required for stage 4 is not available, but reference and payslips are likely.

Outstanding Issues

There are a number of serious outstanding issues still to be resolved:

1. People already in Australia on 485 visas are not likely to have sufficient time to complete the job ready program. One solution to this issue would be for DIAC to issue a 485 visa extension. Currently there is no provision for the 485 visa to be extended.

2. TRA requirements indicate that the job ready program applies to anyone who lives in Australia. Even if an applicant meets the requirements for assessment through TRA's usual UAC pathways, it appears that they must go through the job ready program if living in Australia. In particular, Employer Nomination Scheme (ENS) applicants who live in Australia would be required to go through the job ready program, which is not appropriate. It seems logical that the job ready program would only cover people either on a 485 or bridging visa for 485 and we await further clarification of this from TRA and DIAC.

3. Documentation for employers to complete to join the job ready program is still not available from TRA.

Euroxpat Migration Services has significant experience in guiding applicants both through skills assessment and migration processes.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about applying for skills assessment through TRA or migration to Australia.