pau1burt

Apologies if this has all been dealt with before, but I have a quick question which is really driving me mad and no one in any of the official places can/will answer it for me.

I'm a 30-year old UK IT professional with 6 years continuous professional experience in Unix/Linux network and systems administration. However, I did my university degree in Dutch, and as such, do not have a tertiary degree or any other qualitification in computer science or IT.

Can anyone tell me if what I have is enough to be assessed by the ACS? Or should I ideally to some kind of IT qualification or go through the RPL channel?

Any tips greatly appreciated - I'm pretty confused by the guidelines at this stage.

Cheers,
Paul

JackTheLad

Bumped it up...

If you don't have a degree/diploma or minor in IT or membership with the British Computer Society, you'll most likely need to go down the RPL route.

Did you have any certification on Unix/Linux? Even if you do RPL you'll still need to prove you've been getting trained, etc.

There are many on this forum who have done this before and can surely tell you their experience. Just give them a few minutes/hours and you'll see their replies...

Cheers,
Mrs JTL

pau1burt

I'm guessing that membership of the BCS is also pretty involved for people who do not have a degree in IT/CS? The last time I looked at their guidelines, I got a migraine.

I _don't_ have any qualifications in Unix/Linux - have been too busy working to get any. Do you know if there are "preferred" qualifications I could be looking at doing?

I've also found that Australia is pretty Microsoft obsessed - do you know if the ACS would even recognise a Linux qualification, or does it have to be something like an MSCE to get onto their radar?

At this stage, I may opt to retrain as a hairdresser...

Cheers,
Paul

Salli

I went down the RPL route....it is a lot of work, but it is a good document to have once it's all done.

I don't have a degree but I do have 17 years experience in IT.

I looked into getting BCS membership rather than going the RPL route to begin with. When I enquired I found out that in order for the BCS membership to qualify you, it needed to be 'full member' rather than 'associate member' and in order to get that I needed to go for a panel interview, which I did and passed, then put together a thesis. I decided that I'd rather do the RPL than go through BCS acreditation and then still have to go through an ACS review. I just felt that dealing with the ACS, I was working on my future more...does that make sense?!

The BCS have changed their rules regarding membership recently. In the past, in order to be a full member you needed to have a degree or have done the thesis for them. Now, I am a full member just based on my years of experience, though in order to be chartered I would need to do the thesis. I'm not sure at the moment which level of membership the ACS would require you to have....are they even aware that the BCS entry requirements have changed?

If you need help with putting together an RPL, try doing a search on the forum...there are quite a few people on here who've put one together...or pm me....I'm more than willing to help if I can

Salli

Salli

Just had a quick think...in order to find out which is the best route for you, have a ring around some of the immigration agencies, they will usually look at your case for you and offer suggestions.

See if you can grab Alan Collet or George Lombard's attention, they are both extremely helpful and very knowledgeable....I'm sure they would be able to point you in the right direction and let you know whether an RPL in necessary.

JackTheLad

Bumped it up again...

Hi Paul,

It's a tough one - where are all the other geeks when you need their advice? They were having a lively discussion about pop-up adverts on this forum earlier this morning...

As for preferred qualifications, there's a "Core Body of Knowledge" (CBOK) - it's basically what the ACS is looking for when you apply under RPL. They are not looking at just one or two systems but the overall IT learning experience you've got. See attached doc.

If you do a Search on "+recognition +prior" on this forum, you'll find a number of discussions on the RPL process. Here are a few which I think might be of interest to you.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=223551

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=234431

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=234431

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=234947

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=232846

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=215876

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=234464

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=230677

With no formal training and certification, you might want to consult a migration agent and see if what they can do for you.

My husband has a colleage who was very very desparately wanting to move to Australia (think he's met some woman there or something), but he had no relevant skills - he was more a business analyst, and his work was remotely related to IT. We were seriously considering recommending him to take up plumbing or refridgeration engineering! But then I think he was also getting close to the age limit...

Oh well, let's see where the other fellow geeks are...

All the best,
Mrs JTL

JackTheLad

Oops forgot to attach...

jerzy

Paul,

We've just got our visas through my wifes IT skills. She has no degree at all and had to do the ACS RPL. It is quite involved, took her a couple of months to research and write up, but it was the only way we could get her IT skills recognised.

Sorry, probably not what you wanted to hear but go for it and good luck.

Billabong

Paul,

I also think you'll find that if you have no IT related qualification or degree then you need 8 years experience do qualify for RPL.

I could be wrong and welcome being corrected but that is my understanding..

MarkMyWords

Oooh you're an impatient bu**er... been busy fighting off the ill-effects of installing ****ing AVG, horrible thing was making my laptop crash on boot and I had to go in lightning fast and disable the scan-on-startup registry entry. I hate virus checkers, more trouble than they're worth, the only virus this laptop has ever had was too new for the checkers and I got rid of it the hard way (registry edit). (BTW anyone know how to get in partway through an XP boot? Or force it to singlestep?)

Now, to business, succinctly.

Yes, no formal qualifications means RPL is best.

No, Oz isn't Microsoft-obsessed, or at least no more so than any other country.

Yes, the BCS route is as much bother as RPL. A better bet (which I may try myself) is going for ACS membership once you're in.

MarkMyWords

Gosh I don't remember that. Mind you I've got over 20 so maybe I just ignored it as far too irrelevant.

anya4oz

Sorry all, was doing some extremely geeky WORK for a lot of today & didn't spot this one.

I am in the same boat, loads of experience in IT secy., but no formal paper to wave about as have been too busy making money & solving interesting tech problems to take the time out. And I am useless at cutting hair (my son even moved to the US to get away from my tonsorial skills). So dont worry, you are not alone....

It does sound like you will need to do the RPL. The key thing to remember is that it is all about demonstrating that, tho' you dont have a degree in Comp Sci, you have been busy learning stuff over the years that is just as useful (frankly, probably MORE useful.).

A good agent will provide you with not just advice, but proformae etc outlining what you need to do for the RPL, so may well be worthwhile.

Very good luck,

Anya.

wmoore

I keep seeing that quoted on here but I've never seen it anywhere official. Even my RPL rejection letter () quoted that I didn't have "6 years relevant professional IT experience" (no formal quals and also failed my final MCSE exam recently - on a roll ).
Paul, I would definitely recommend speaking to an agent on this one. It seems that you might be borderline (like me) and you don't want to spend 100 hours putting together a bloody brilliant RPL application to miss out in something fundamental (like me )

MarkMyWords

Oh now that is a bummer! Bad luck. What now?

wmoore

Don't wanna hijack . See http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...06#post1465006