New Skills Australia Paper: An Indication of the New SOL?

10 March 2010 —

Skills Australia, the organisation with the responsibility preparing the new Skilled Occupation List (SOL) - to be announced at the end of April and taking effect sometime mid-year - has released Australian Workforce Futures - A National Workforce Development Strategy (PDF).

This paper recommendations 'A fundamental overhaul in the way the nation approaches and supports workforce development - at a national, industry and enterprise level.'

This ideas and statistics in this paper will be taken into account in the preparation of the new Skilled Occupation List.

The paper lists industries and occupations projected to have the highest rate of employment to 2025 (table 3, page 22), as well as listing 'Specialised Occupations' (page 82), which may be indicative of the way the new SOL will appear.

Further information about this paper can be found on the Skills Australia website.

Skills Australia also hosts an information sheet, Changes to the Skilled Occupation List for Migration (PDF) about the preparation of the new SOL.

HEALTH OPERATIONS CENTRE UPDATE
HOC is currently processing medicals completed OFF-SHORE:

1. Cases requiring assessment by a Medical Officer, received on 5 March 2010
2. eHealth2 cases, non auto cleared, awaiting administrative assessment 5 March 2010
3. Temporary cases not requiring MOC's assessment, received on 3 March 2010
4. Permanent cases not requiring MOC's assessment, received on 3 March 2010

The case officer processing your visa application should be your first point of contact regarding any inquiry in relation to the application, including health assessment results.

If directing an enquiry to HOC, please note that if you are not the authorised contact declared on the visa application forms, then the HOC cannot release any information to you.

If your enquiry relates to medicals conducted onshore, please contact Medibank Solutions (Previously known as HSA). HOC appreciates if all agents could contact case officers directly regarding 'urgent' processing requests as HOC will only action specific/genuinely urgent cases.