Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

Hi! I am looking to emigrate with my family to Australia and I am trying to work out how many points I can claim on the eoi. I want to try and apply for a skilled independent 189 visa, for early childhood (pre-primary) teacher. The area that I am confused on is the work experience/ skilled employment section. Basically I don't know if I can count the experience I gained after my bachelors degree, and would be grateful of any advice please.

I did my bachelors degree in Early Childhood Studies which I completed in 2012, I then got a job in a preschool as a graduate early years practitioner. I then left in 2014 to do my PGCE, and once this was completed I returned to the same preschool as a preschool teacher.

Aitsl say they only deal with the initial teacher training degree, but on the anzsco website it says a bachelors degree is all that is needed to do the job. So how many years experience can I legitimately claim- less than 2 or 3-4? The 5 points I could gain from 3-4 years would really help me with my points total.

Thank you in advance for any help!

Re: Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

Have you already done your skills assessment? If not - AITSL provides points advice to intending migrants for an extra fee.

When you send in your official documents for the skills assessment, tick the box for points advice, and also provide your extra experience documents (AND an official job description from the employer and whatever other documents they say they need for the points advice).

They are well experienced in dealing with overseas qualified teachers and will provide clarity.

In your case - how long was your Bachelor's degree program, and did it require 45 days of supervised practice? AITSL requires the educational program for pre-primary to be equivalent to four years at an Australian university and the supervised practice to be 45 days. That is where most Brits come into trouble.

Re: Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

I have an Early Childhood Studies Degree (BA Honour/3 years). Then 2 years working in a nursery. Then a one year PGCE in Early Childhood too, then a further 2 years in the same nursery. The degree did have some placement time in it, I will contact them to find out how much, I know the PGCE covers that aspect. But to qualify for the 5 experience points for 3 years work I suppose I need to see if I am 'skilled' from the first degree based on the 45 hours.

Also, I am 32 now and will turn 33 in February, If I apply at 32 but then I turn 33 while I am waiting for a visa, will I be deducted the 5 pts for age?

Re: Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

Also, Thank you for your help and reply :)

Re: Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

Age points are locked at the time of invitation to apply.

Re: Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

That's good to know, thanks. One less thing to worry about.

Re: Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

As ianandhelena said - age gets locked in.

However sometimes AITSL's processing time can go beyond their stated advice. You will turn 33 in six months - that sounds like you've got time to blow and proceed at a leisurely pace, but in reality, you don't. Allow at least 15 weeks for AITSL to do their skills assessment and get it back to you. Then, you need to factor in the EoI draw relative to your birthday, since while age gets locked it DOES NOT just when you submit a EoI to the pool.

I would submit to AITSL no later than the end of September. That is not a lot of time in the world of shaking papers loose from bureaucracy. Get started!

Re: Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

Also, have you done IELTS? If not, sign up for that as sometimes there can be a waiting list and it also takes them 3 weeks to get official scores back to you.

Re: Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

I have already sent my application off to aitsl and booked my IELTs for August 19th 😊 Fingers crossed I get everything back soon, thank you.

Re: Please help! Confusing work experience points!
 

Well done. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.