[PhilD]

Hi all

I'm about to submit an EOI, and would like to claim work experience in an area of absolute skills shortage.

I don't have the necessary specific IT degree, but have been in IT management for more than 6 years. Can I claim the experience? If I claim and get it wrong, what's the down side?

Any help?

Thanks

[Chaz]

Under correction, you should be able to. I have a similar situation ,have qualification as Electrician and electrical studies, but left the trade in 2001 to do IT full time. No qualifications in IT apart from a few vendor type courses.

[Pebbles]

In the worst case they will deduct the points if not acceptable.
Or you keep the points and will have to come up with relevant proof.
If you do not necesarily need the extra points then I would stay away from the skill shortage list - you will be asked to deliver proof and they will do third party checks.

[Nienke]

If I remember correctly, to be able to claim those points you need the relevant degree.
The only down side is that if you claim those points and don't get them, the points will be deducted from your total. That happened to us, no harm done fortunately (but we had some 200 points, so it didn't really matter).

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

If I remember correctly, to be able to claim those points you need the relevant degree.

Sorry, but wrong, unless they've changed the rules in the last year.

This was exactly my situation. I claimed 50 points for over ten years IT experience. I have no IT qualifications to my name, or a degree of any sort.

Admittedly, this is very confusing, and we had to clarify and re-clarify before we submitted EOI, but you do not need a qual in your field of expertise, you just need to be able to prove the experience with copies of contracts from employers.

[PhilD]

Thanks to all for the responses. I'm going to claim the points and submit right now.

Here goes, 135 points....

[JandM]

Good luck!:nice1

[everythingevans]

Good Luck, I posted a similar question about claiming points for working as an engineer without the specific degree / chartered membership supposedly required to gain points for being on the shortage list.

If you do get the points then let us know as it might give me hope!

Thanks.

[benrus]

Hi,

Just want to share my past experience. I had similar case whereas my EOI (140pts, no job offer) was selected 14Feb. My skilled experience (more than 10 yrs) is in IT. However, my qualification is non-IT related and was assessed by NZQA as level4 only. After a month, CO notified me that my points have to be lowered to 125. I was told that I cannot claim 6 years work experience in Area of Absolute Skills Shortage due to following:

Work Experience in Area of Absolute Skills Shortage (ASSA): 0 points ***
To qualify for bonus points, you have to meet the requirements set out on the Long Term Skill Shortage List (LTSSL), (Appendix 6).
The requirement for Computer application Engineer is Degree level qualification (Level 7) majoring in computer science, information science or information technology.
Since your degree level is not comparable to degree level 7 and your major area of study is not a computer science, information science or information technology, hence we are not able to award any bonus points for your qualification.

I made an appeal but was not successful. I was advised that my EOI of 125 pts with no job offer, with no work experience or qualification in ASSA, may still be selected since minimum selection criteria may change at every fortnightly selection.

On April9, my EOI (125pts) was among the 135 EOI selected without job offer, with no work experience or qualification in ASSA.

As of this writing, I'm still waiting for good news if Decision will be successfull.
So my advise is just submit your EOI and see how it goes ...:)