How can an engineer with no prior working experience write CDR?

Before we learn how to write a CDR, let us first understand what it is and what its importance is.

A CDR (Competency Demonstration Report) is a set of documents required to prove competency in engineering skills to the Institution of Engineers Australia. It is required for all the engineers to write a CDR who wish to migrate to Australia for work. Engineers Australia assesses these engineers on the basis of their CDR reports. The Migration Skills Assessment (MSA) has made a clear set of guidelines to make a CDR report. Your report must comply with those guidelines otherwise the CDR application will be suspended for about 11 months and you would not have any chance to migrate to Australia until the suspension period ends.However, the engineers who belong to the recognized engineering bodies by Engineers Australia need not prepare the CDR report.

How to write a CDR (Competency Demonstration Report)?

While writing a CDR report, consider the format mentioned in the Migration Skills Assessment (MSA) booklet. First of all, identify the engineering occupation you want to be assessed for. You will get information about the required competencies in your nominated occupation.

Step by step procedure to write a CDR report. A CDR report must include the following:

1. Personal Information

  • Passport size photo
  • Prime ID
  • Name change documents
  • CV/Resume
  • English language test (IELTS / TOEFL® / PTE ACADEMIC™) results

Make sure to add every single detail of the above-mentioned entities.

2. Application Information

  • Nominated engineering occupation
  • Evidence of registration (if applicable)

    • Choose your engineering occupation wisely and add only the relevant documents for it.

    3. Education

    • Degree Certificates
    • Academic transcripts
    • Additional qualifications (if any)
    • Enrolment letter and transcript (if enrolled in any formal educational program)
    Do not forget to mention the details of educational institutions. Take care of upper case and lower case letters.

    4. Employment

    • Evidence of employment
    • Translational and original language documents (For references in languages other than English)
    You must provide a reference letter (with necessary details) from the employer if you have claimed engineering employment for more than a year.

    5. Report

    • CPD statement
    • Three Career Episodes
    • Summary Statement

    A CPD (Continuing Professional Development) must include all the information about your developments in engineering after undergraduate qualification, in a list format.

    A career episode describes every aspect of your engineering activity and your work experience. That is, it includes the details of how you applied engineering skills in the nominated occupation. Write it according to the MSA format.

    In summary statement, you must include a brief analysis of all the three career episodes you wrote. Only one summary statement is written for all three career episodes.
    Once you are finished with this writing, make sure it is plagiarism free and is in compliance with the guidelines mentioned in the MSA booklet. It is necessary because if the CDR report is rejected or found irrelevant to the MSA format then you may be  EA banned to apply for migration to Australia.