Getting your engineering skills recognized in Australia
The Sydney Accord was signed in June 2001, by seven founding signatories representing; Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and South Africa. Currently, there are ten signatories that make up the Sydney Accord. Qualifications accredited or recognized by other signatories are recognized by each signatory as being substantially equivalent to accredited or recognized qualifications within its own jurisdiction.
• Australia
• Canada
• Chinese Taipei
• Hong Kong China
• Ireland
• Korea
• New Zealand
• South Africa
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Malaysia
Provisional Signatories
• Peru
• Sri Lanka
THE WASHINGTON ACCORD
• Australia
• Canada
• China
• Chinese Taipei
• Hong Kong China
• India
• Ireland
• Japan
• Korea
• Malaysia
• New Zealand
• Russia
• Singapore
• South Africa
• Sri Lanka
• Turkey
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Pakistan
• Peru
Provisional Signatories
• Bangladesh
• Costa Rica
• Mexico
• Philippines
• Chile
The Dublin Accord
• Australia
• Canada
• Ireland
• New Zealand
• Korea
• South Africa
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Malaysia
What if your qualifications are not considered equivalent to an Australian degree?
However, applicants who are from countries which are not signatories of any reciprocal agreement with Australia must go through a detailed assessment of their qualifications and prepare a “Competency Demonstration Report (CDR)”.
The CDR is like an essay in which the applicant needs to demonstrate how he/she applied their knowledge of engineering in practice. The CDR is mandatory and must be written following specifications laid down in the Migration Skills Assessment booklet published by Engineers Australia.
It seems that several companies, mainly outside of Australia, now offer to write CDRs for a fee, but we would strongly advise you to write your own essay as per the EA guidelines: “The CDR must be all your own work. An application showing evidence of fraud will be rejected and the applicant banned for 12 Months. Bigger cases of fraud involving more than one or two applicants may lead to a bigger investigation. Engineers Australia has no hesitation in referring confirmed cases of fraud to DIBP’’.