Overseas experience and qualifications
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Many refugees and people seeking asylum already have overseas qualifications or skills. If you are planning on studying in Australia, you should talk to the organisation that is offering the course you want to see if they will recognise these qualifications or skills. This is often called ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’, or ‘Overseas Qualification Assessment’ or ‘Overseas Qualification Recognition’. Many of these organisations may have an online tool to help you find out what credits you may get.
How to find out if your skills, work experience or past study can count towards a new course.
The government of your state and territory (other than NSW) can also look at how your higher education qualifications compare to the Australian qualifications system. This process is called ‘Oversease Qualification Assessments’ and is usually free for people living in the state or territory.
For some jobs in Australia, such as doctors, lawyers and architects, you will need to talk to the organisation that registers or licenses people in that job. Usually, there will be a national body that can give you advice about what else you might need to do to qualify in Australia. For other jobs, Australian governments can also look at your overseas qualification and decide what it is worth in Australia.
