Process
Apart from IPA, two other assessing organisations, CAANZ and CPAA, are approved by the Department of Home Affairs to provide skills assessments for accounting occupations on the combined current list. Applicants need to choose only one authority and submit qualifications and skilled employment assessments to the same organisation. CAANZ and CPAA have their own assessment criteria that may differ from IPA requirements discussed below.
IPA provides 2 types of skills assessment, full and provisional. The former is for points tested and employer sponsored visas and the latter is for Graduate Work stream of the Temporary Graduate visa.
Skilled employment assessment is separate from qualifications assessment and intially applicants can submit qualifications assessment only. After a successful outcome of the qualifications assessment, applicants can submit Skilled employment assessment.
All applicants must provide English Language Test (ELT) results that are no more than 2 (for PTE and IELTS) or 3 (for TOEFL and CAE) years old. For a full skills assessment the minimal scores for each module must be no less than in the following table.
Module
Reading
Writing
Speaking
IELTS Academic
7
7
7
CAE
185
185
185
TOEFL iBT®
24
27
23
PTE Academic™
65
65
65
Qualifications
For full skills assessment applicants must hold a qualification that is assessed as comparable (in both content and standard) to at least an Australian bachelor’s degree. IPA uses the guidelines published in the relevant Country Education Profiles provided by the Qualifications Recognition Policy Unit of the Australian government Department of Education and Training. Applicants with overseas qualifications must provide a detailed syllabus with their application.
In addition, qualifications must include adequate coverage of the core competency areas. The first seven competencies out of the following nine core knowledge areas are mandatory for all accounting occupations. The last two competencies, Auditing and Assurance and Australian Tax Law, are mandatory only for External Auditor and Taxation Accountant, respectively.
Core Knowledge Areas
- 1. Basic Accounting
- 2. Financial Accounting and Reporting
- 3. Cost and Management Accounting
- 4. Financial Management
- 5. Economics
- 6. Business Law (inc Corporate law)
- 7. Statistics
- 8. Auditing and Assurance
- 9. Australian Tax Law
Core Knowledge Area
9
Accountant General 221111
optional
Taxation Accountant 221113
mandatory
Management Accountant 221112
optional
External Auditor 221213
optional
Finance Manager 132211
optional
IPA will also consider the studies completed as part of the Associate membership requirements for the following list of global professional accounting bodies.
Global Accounting Bodies
- Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, UK (ACCA)
- Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK (CIMA)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP)
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka
- Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP)
Employment
Skilled employment assessment must be completed by the same assessing body that completed qualifications assessment. IPA will only consider skilled employment if tasks performed are closely related to the same nominated occupation used in qualifications assessment and if employment was:
- undertaken after completion of a tertiary qualification that is comparable to the level of an Australian Bachelor degree or higher
- minimum of 1 year in total and undertaken within 10 years prior to skills assessment application date
- paid and full-time equivalent (minimum of 20 hours per week)
Timeframes
Processing time varies depending on the volume of application. Currently, outcomes for Qualifications and Skilled Employment applications are provided within two weeks of receiving all documents. Fast Track service guarantees an outcome within two business days of receiving all documents, but it is available to holders of Australian qualifications only.
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