International students and offshore graduates looking to work in Australia once their studies are completed will be able to apply for two new visas from September.
International students and offshore graduates looking to work in Australia once their studies are completed will be able to apply for two new visas from September.
Federal Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews announced the new graduate temporary visas on Friday as part of a package of reforms to the general skilled migration programme.
Overseas students already studying in Australia will be able to apply for an 18 month visa upon graduation, while offshore graduates from nominated overseas institutions will also be eligible for a similar visa, provided they have skills that are considered ‘in demand’.
The reforms also include increasing the English language threshold requirement for professional, technical or managerial occupations, although this will not apply to the temporary business 457 visas.
However, 457 visa applicants with skills on the migration occupations in demand list (MODL) will gain additional points for English language proficiency.
Association of Consulting Engineers Australia chief executive officer Megan Motto said the new visas would address a gap in the market.
“We lose an enormous amount of young graduates every year to go to the UK and go backpacking," she said.
Ms Motto said the visas would help to promote Australia as a destination for professional workers.
“We felt that while migrants could work on 457 visas or even holiday-maker visas, those categories really didn’t do anything to attract skilled professionals to come into highly skilled, professional jobs,” she said.
Engineers Australia associate director of public policy Kathryn Hurford said the new visas were likely to improve long-term recruitment of overseas workers to Australia.
“All of the studies relating to engineering say that the two biggest factors in migrant workers coming to Australia are English language and local experience,” she said.
“Obviously, any visa category that helps deal with those issues, we would be supportive of.”
Ms Hurford said the organisation had previously recommended the federal government raise the English language requirement threshold to level six.
CPA Australia WA divisional director Aidan O’Grady said the organisation had also been pushing for an increased language requirement for some time.
“We think that will go some way to addressing the skills shortage,” he said. “One of the complaints we often get is that overseas graduates do not have the English skills required. This will go some way to meeting the concerns of the market.”
