Programmers and ICT security specialists will get prioritised visa processing to enter Australia and bypass travel restrictions under an expansion of the skilled migration program.
Immigration minister Alex Hawke on Tuesday announced that 22 new occupations would be added to the Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List, which was launched in September last year offering prioritised visas and exemptions from travel restrictions for the jobs listed.
The new occupations include electrical engineers, analyst programmers, software and application programmers, ICT security specialists and multimedia specialists. The existing occupation list also included developer programmers and software engineers.
Visa holders who are sponsored by an Australian business in one of the listed occupations will be able to have their visa prioritised and request an exemption from the current travel restrictions, but will still have to undergo quarantine for 14 days at their own expense.
The previous priority occupation list allowed software engineers and developers to obtain visas in the last year despite Australia’s closed borders, according to TechVisa director Sam Bricknell.
“Many of our clients talk to us about how tight the market is and it’s more competitive than ever to get the right talent,” Mr Bricknell told InnovationAus.
“So adding more occupations to the priority list to allow sponsorship from overseas will hopefully help them get the right talent and assist with COVID recovery.”
Visas under the priority scheme are typically issued within two weeks, Mr Bricknell said, but the main challenge currently is getting flights and then quarantining in Australia.
“For the right people though, the companies are willing to wait and in many cases don’t really have enough local talent for there to be any other option.”
The new occupations were selected after consultation with local SMEs and larger businesses, Mr Hawke said.
“Government has received valuable feedback from Australian business stakeholders on critical skill vacancies, which has been considered together with data from the National Skills Commission, in order to develop today’s update to the Priority Migration Skilled Migration List,” Mr Hawke said.
“The Morrison Government will continue to support Australian businesses, including through skilled migration, as the engine room of our nation’s economy.”
The announcement comes just weeks after the federal government moved to cut the number of business innovation and global talent visas on offer from the next financial year as part of a significant rejigging of Australia’s skilled migration program.
The number of business innovation visas issued in 2020-21 was 13,500, but this will be cut down to 11,000 next year. The number of visas issued under the Global Talent program will be slashed from 15,000 to 11,000 in 2021-22.
This will coincide with an increase in the number of employer-sponsored visas, from 22,000 and 23,500, along with a rise in regional visas and skilled independent visas.
A recent report from the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) found that 23 per cent of permanent skilled migrants in Australia are working in a job beneath their skill level, making a big hit to productivity.
The CEDA report proposed a new online platform to connect potential migrants with employers and their vacancies before they land in Australia.
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The report from CEDA may well show that 23 percent of permanent skilled migrants are working in a job beneath their skill level, BUT our experience is that a large majority of the applicants we get responding to job adds claim to have skills. qualifications and experience that are entirely fictitious. Australia needs to be far more careful when accepting the claims of people applying for visas on the basis of their purported skills and qualifications. This situation may also be strongly linked to the demands of the Federal Government that JobSeeker recipients submit enormous numbers of job applications every month to remain entitled to receive unemployment benefits.
We concerned the scope of essential ICT skills is too restrictive! For example, it has been near impossible to source adequately skilled ICT engineers to install and maintain B2B Voice & Data Networks, particularly in regional Australia and problem existed pre-Covid, and heightened now! This shortage is blocking us from taking on more Aussie Apprentices and Trainees!
On a positive note, great idea about a job connect platform! Where can we register our interest so we are kept informed?
Y R we not training these professions here???
R we 2 stupid???