High score but still no invitation? IT occupations, look here: the same qualifications and experience can switch to a different occupation — multiple success stories granted on Subclass 189/190!

In Australia’s points-based skilled migration today, the hardest part isn’t reaching a high score — it’s that invitations for many common occupations are becoming scarcer and scarcer. Accounting and auditing go without saying; the three big IT favourites are also a disaster zone; and some engineering occupations too… no invitation no matter how high your score — that is the biggest pain point right now.

Previously we suggested that people in civil engineering could, based on their work experience, consider obtaining an additional skills assessment as a civil engineering draftsperson/technician, or as a construction project manager.

Today we have a tip for IT students — especially those in 2611 ICT BA — so why not try applying for the 224116 Statistician skills assessment.

An overall comparison of the migration landscape

On the Subclass 189 front, Statistician invitations have held at 85-90 points across the last three consecutive rounds.

The Subclass 189 backlog for the Statistician occupation is very healthy: as at the end of May, the total backlog of EOIs at 90 points or above came to fewer than 150. By comparison, the backlog for 2611 ICT BA at 90 points or above exceeded 3,000.

State nomination is also inviting the Statistician occupation — Victoria’s state nomination, for instance.

So which fields of study actually qualify for the Statistician skills assessment?

Statistician is a Group A occupation under the VETASSESS assessing authority:

You need a highly relevant bachelor’s degree or higher, plus one year of relevant work experience.

Highly relevant qualifications: BA and Data Science are themselves cross-disciplinary fields spanning computer science, business and statistics. VETASSESS expressly states that fields such as Business Analytics and Data Science are highly relevant; whether yours is highly relevant in practice is also decided case by case. Put simply, what matters most is whether your transcript contains a sufficient proportion of core subjects leaning towards mathematics and statistics — you are welcome to bring your transcript in for us to assess.

One year of relevant work experience: the Statistician skills assessment requires applicants to have at least 1 year of highly relevant work experience within the most recent 5 years after graduation, at a minimum of 20 hours per week, and it must be gained after the qualification was obtained. For IT applicants in the mid-to-high points range, this amount of work is really just an entry-level requirement; what matters most is still whether the duties are relevant — and, again, you are welcome to come to us for a detailed assessment.

In fact, we have already handled several clients who originally fell under IT and later successfully switched to Statistician — all of whom have been granted their visas.

Case 1

The client held an undergraduate degree in Data Science and a postgraduate degree in BA, with 2 years of full-time work experience in data analysis after graduation. Initially, the client obtained an ICT BA skills assessment, but the pool was simply too competitive and an invitation remained nowhere in sight.

So we re-planned his pathway and switched him to Statistician. In March this year he formally received his skills assessment, and in less than 1 month he secured a Victorian Subclass 190 invitation and obtained a formal nomination.

Case 2

The client held an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Statistics and a master’s degree in Business, and after graduation worked in an Associate role.

We likewise lodged a Statistician skills assessment for him. He received the skills assessment smoothly in early October last year, and in last November’s Subclass 189 invitation round he was granted his visa with an EOI of 90 points.

Case 3

The client held an undergraduate degree in Marketing and Business Statistics and graduated with a postgraduate degree in BA, with nearly 3 years of work experience as a Senior Performance Analyst after graduation. He too originally held an ICT BA assessment; after we planned his pathway and analysed his duties, we switched him to the Statistician occupation, and he received his skills assessment smoothly at the end of 2024. As one of the applicants to receive a pre-invitation in Victoria’s first round of the financial year, he was granted his visa on a bare score of 85 points.

One final point worth stressing: once you hold a Statistician skills assessment, you can absolutely lodge two occupations at the same time, waiting in the pool for both Subclass 189 and Subclass 190 invitations together — multiple chances running in parallel.

Many people, in order to switch to an occupation that actually gets invited, have to study for at least another year and then build up work experience and so on. Using your existing experience and qualifications to obtain an additional skills assessment is just about the simplest, most direct, most time-saving and cost-effective option available right now — we strongly recommend looking into it!