Hello all,
I am working with an emigration agent who is trying to get me membership into the Australian Computer Society. My question is how important is this as far as getting employment or is is just for the points? Is anyone else a member or have been told to become one in order to move there?
Any input would be helpful. BTW I am an 9 year experienced Network Engineer hoping that my experience will get me in...

Interested in answer too.
Tnx

Don't you have to get your skills assessed by ACS if you want to claim you are an IT professional for a skilled migrant visa? That's what I thought when I was looking at going down that route...

For me, becoming a member of the ACS was more of a tranferrence of accreditations really. Beforehand I had to obtain a skills assessment from the ACS and then they send you an invitation to join if your skills are appropriate. For a nominal sum, after you've been passed as suitable it's probably worth doing if it gives employers in Oz some assurance on your skills and competency ? (or rather incompetency in my case

all the best, Martyn

Hi

If you are going to apply for a Skilled Migration Visa you will need to get your skills accessed by ACS. I have recently had my skills accessed by ACS which took about 6-8 weeks and a lot of hard work.
If like me you don't have a degree in IT then you need to complete an RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) by proving with x2 1000 word Project reports and CBOK to prove that your years of experience is as good as having a degree.

I have 18 years experience in IT mainly in Network & Security but had no degree so had to get the approval with a lot of hard work.

If you do need to go down this route check out the following website www.rplhelp.com

Thanks very much, and the rplhelp site looks very useful. I do not have a degree in IT but rather professional qualifications, MCSE, CCNA, CNA, CISSP etc and I am hoping they will suffice. Also, does being a manager have any bearing on the process or don't they care about rank and supervision?
Cheers.
Simon

Hi Simon,

I don't think professional qualifications count but I may be wrong best to check on the ACS site it will explain further, they aren't interested in rank and supervision its a matter of being able to prove to them that you have the necessary skills and experience.

Hope this helps and good luck
Cheers
Mark

MCSE may count towards the academic part of Group B assessment, the others won't.

Better to ask immigration questions on the immigration forum.

Whoa, hang on a minute, did you say CISSP ?

If so did you know that it's now on the modl list as one of then newly added Computing Professional quals, as opposed to on skilled migrant list ? Could be the fastest way out there !

look here : http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/gener...-in-demand.htm

happy bastard, and lucky bastard then !!!!

all the best !

Hi HB!

My husbands skills were assessed by the ACS which was part of the requirements of the visa but that was as far as he took it. He's not a member and managed to get a job here and we've also set up a consultancy company which he's getting work through. We are in regional Australia (Albany, WA) it might be different elsewhere but in our experience it makes no difference. Out of interest, are you British or Canadian. We visited Toronto a few years back and travelled a bit...loved it, but the CN Tower freaked me out a bit!

Thanks to everyone for your help, looks like my CISSP training may be the best option, now I have to take the damn exams...
I am both British and Canadian, I was born in York England and moved to Canada when I was 18 and got citizenship here. Toronto is nice, however its getting crowded and the crime rate is steadily climbing. Also I am just so sick of the winters here and the weather in general... Today it is 38 degrees (that is 100 degrees) and with the humidity factor it is 47!!! (or 118 if you prefer).

For MODL points you need to have at least 12months experience in that IT specialisation i.e working as a CISSP
If you haven't taken the CISSP exam yet it won't count

Hi there,

Not sure if I'll be any help but I've been in IT for over 14 years. I'm a systems engineer and only have a couple of MCSE's and a lowly MCSA... (I know, thick bastard!!) Anyway, I looked at joining the ACS whilst I was still in the UK but the impression I got was that I either wouldn't get in on those qualifications alone or would have to go through some form of assessment?

To hell with that, I went and sent in the work skills form to dimia nevertheless and I got 60 points and then we made the main application for our visas and it wasn't too long before we found out we were successful! (I would add that I had an uncle in Melbourne sponsor us and he can talk the hind legs off of a donkey so they prob'ly caved in and granted us our visas just to get shot of him??)

Now that I'm in Oz out of all the jobs I've applied for, etc... not one of them have any requirement for being a member of the ACS. From the sounds of your currentl qualifications I would think that those would be sufficient but if you can join the ACS without too much additional hassle then I guess go for it but the last thing I wanted when my family and I were applying for our visas was yet more bloomin' study!!!!!

Not sure if my random rant is any help but good luck to you and I hope you're successful in getting yer visa!!

The ACS counts for jack over here - don't waste your money

I used to work for the Australian Computer Society and membership means nothing when you go to get a job. They try to entice you by saying membership validates your skills and credentials but in fact most Australians don't even know what ACS is. The ACS is only still afloat due to the money it gets from the skills assessment work it does for DIMIA and the migrants (mainly non English speaking background) who think it will help them get a job. I used to feel bad having to tell prospective members it would help them get a job when I knew it wouldn't.