Victoria University has been successful in acquiring the tender to conduct skills assessments for temporary working visas. The Australian Government, through Trades Recognition Australia, has approved Victoria University to conduct formal skills assessments for temporary working visa applicants from nominated countries and trades.
Commonly known as the 457 Visa, VU will conduct skills assessments for first class welders, fitters, metal fabricators, motor mechanics, cooks and chefs from China, India, Fiji and The Philippines.
For this project, Victoria University has agreed to work with Education Training International (ETI) and TAFEWA in a consortium arrangement so that VU can provide services throughout Australia and Internationally. ETI has many strong relationships internationally that VU will be working with to make this project successful and it will have the integrity that the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace relations (DEEWR) and Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) require.
“It is our intention to develop relationships with these partners to broaden our opportunities internationally, which will increase VU’s profile and market share in training”, said Vicki Sherry, Business Development Manager, Technical and Trades Innovation.
From 1 July 2009 until 30 September 2009 the first phase of the three year tender commenced to provide skills assessments in five trades and four countries for Victoria University. It is DEEWR’s intention to extend the agreement from October 1 2009 to provide services of an unknown amount of other trades and countries and then the agreement will be fully extended in January 2010 to cover 37 trades and 10 countries.
The selected group of RTOs will also be used as a working group to monitor and improve the assessment process during the period of the tender so the process can be streamlined for DEEWR, DIAC, RTOs and the applicants to ensure positive outcomes.
For further information please contact [email protected] or phone Jane on (03) 9919 7365.
