Today, AITSL — the assessing authority for most teaching occupations — has updated its July 2023 document checklist to confirm that it, too, now accepts the IELTS One Skill Retake — covering occupations such as early childhood, secondary and special-education teachers.

Language requirements for teacher skills assessments

–IELTS results only — PTE, TOEFL and the like are not accepted

-IELTS scores must meet 7-7-8-8 — Reading 7 and Writing 7, Speaking 8 and Listening 8 (results obtained within the 24 months before lodgement)

–the IELTS One Skill Retake is now accepted

–When the 7-7-8-8 requirement can be waived: if you have completed four or more years of undergraduate or higher study across these six countries — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States and Ireland (study may be combined)

**Note: TEACHER OF ENGLISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER

LANGUAGES (TESOL) is an occupation assessed by VETASSESS, and its skills assessment never had a language requirement to begin with.

Because the previous language requirement was so demanding, many people sought to waive it by completing four years of qualifying study. If you studied early childhood or secondary teaching at undergraduate level in Australia, most of these programmes run for four years, so on completion you can be exempt from the 7-7-8-8 language requirement.

So the people who stand to benefit from this acceptance of single-skill re-sits include, but are not limited to:

-those who completed an undergraduate degree in China and then came to Australia for a two-year master’s in secondary or early childhood teaching

-those who completed a 2-year / 1.5-year master’s in Australia and then took an early childhood Graduate Diploma, primarily for migration purposes

Some students say 7-7-8-8 is still too hard even with a re-sit — any quick, straightforward options?

For students who have already completed a 3-year undergraduate degree in Australia or one of those other five countries, you can take a one-year early childhood Graduate Diploma. The benefits are:

-in most cases you can enrol without a language test

-on completion you reach four years of qualifications, so you can obtain your skills assessment without a language test

-the one-year programme has fairly affordable tuition fees, around $20,000-$30,000

-there are plenty of intake options, and some can even be studied online

-anyone following migration news knows just how favourable the current invitation scores and outlook are for early childhood education

Recommended early childhood Graduate Diplomas in Australia

For teaching-related programmes and institutions,

and the skills assessment that follows,

if you need a hand, get in touch with our consultants below:

About the IELTS one skill retake

Test centres in Australia’s major cities offer the One Skill Retake. Please also note that you can only sit a One Skill Retake if your original test was a computer-delivered test taken at a test centre.

For more information, visit the official IELTS Australia website:

https://ielts.com.au/australia/about/ielts-one-skill-retake?gad=1&gclid=cj0kcqjw2qkmbhcfarisafy8buljxcb6nvd9ohjt-ns4tsocwufd4-k6ibe6klgfsb1eik4iggwh-pyaagemealw_wcb