The real demand for IT professionals

It is no secret IT professionals have been in acute shortage in Australia and it seems the demand keeps rising as ever. Australia has shown all signs of recovery, although the country never was hit by the economic turmoil. IT has for many years been in demand and recently certain specialties in the field have shown a dramatic skills shortage in the market. Responding to the shortage, the Australian government has brought specialties such as JAVA, C, into the Migration Occupations in Demand List. At the same time, IT professionals having the above skills receive priority processing making the PR process a smooth one.

Opportunities for Sri Lankans

Sri Lankan IT professionals are in the top tier of recognized overseas qualified professionals. It is because of the outstanding level of IT education offered by many government and non government institutes in Sri Lanka. In my experience in meeting with IT professionals, I would rate a very low percentage to the professionals who do not possess a valid qualification in IT. Generally speaking, all IT degrees offered through government institutes, and certain Diplomas such as NIBM, ACS, BCS etc. are highly regarded for migration purpose. The good news is, IT is one of two occupations that does make a candidate eligible without any formal IT education; that is anyone having more than 7 years experience in the IT industry will qualify to migrate to Australia without a qualification on paper. In terms of job opportunities, IT professionals have been rated as one of the occupations that are among the fastest in securing employment from the time of landing in Australia. Apart from the solid work experience one possesses, it is worthy of attempting to capture knowledge through professional examinations to enhance and prove the expertise in one of the areas in demand, which will lead to securing employment in a short period of time.

Do I qualify to migrate to Australia?

IT professionals can be divided into three main segments for the purpose of migration.
IT degree holders + 4 years experience
IT Diploma (ACS/ BSC/ NIBM etc) + 6 years experience
IT professionals with no paper base qualifications but has more than 7 years work experience
It is important that an applicant must fall under one of the above categories to meet the qualifying criteria for migration.

Category 1 is rather vague when stating a degree level qualification. What ACS requires is an IT specialized degree that has at least 33% of the subject component to be IT in the degree course. In Sri Lanka, I have sighted many BSc. degree holders that possess degrees of one major subject being IT. In this instance, unfortunately, one will not qualify as 33% of a Major is not covered in the degree. I have seen many cases failed on this basis and a review is not possible as requirements are not met.

Q & A
Hi,
I'm fully qualified with CIM and become MCIM as well. I have been working as a Sales Manager for the last 1 year.
Please advise on the prospects of self migrating to Australia.
Prathapan

Dear Mr. Prathapan,
With one year's experience in the industry as a Manager will not make you eligible for migration to Australia. If your occupation is a Sales Manager, it is a must you have at least 3 years of work experience in the highest senior management role of Sales and the company must have at least 600 employees, having CIM assist you to get through with 3 years of work experience.

Hello there,
My son who will be completing his BSc in Bi-technology next April would like to find out the possibility to migrate to Australia on any work / training related visa.
Currently he is resident in Malaysia studying for his BSc.
Please let me know his chances of applying for any work/skill/training/work placement related visas.
Ashraff

Dear Mr. Ashraff
Basically, to qualify for skilled migration, your son must have at least 12 months of work experience post qualification.
If he intends to lodge a skilled visa, he must have his nominated occupation in the skills occupation list.
If we are talking about training or work placement, there must be an Australian employer or a training provider that has to intervene in the process by sponsoring your son.