Feds review ICT skilled migration list to bolster local jobs - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Feds review ICT skilled migration list to bolster local jobs

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
July 02, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Feds-review-ICT-skilled-migration-list-to-bolster-local-jobs/0,139023166,120266363,00.htm

The Federal Government is reviewing the Migration Occupations in Demand List for ICT workers, which could mean fewer migrants with skills that are already in surplus in Australia.

Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, Tony Abbott, has called for comment from industry groups on the matter. This follows the reduction earlier this year of the number of ICT specialisations on the National Skill Shortage List identified as -in shortage" have halved to just 12 of the almost 100 specialisations surveyed.

-We will then send those comments, the survey and the reduced [National Skill Shortage] list to the department of immigration and they'll make an assessment based on their beliefs," a spokesperson for the minister Simone Holzapfel told ZDNet Australia. She was unable to give an exact time frame, but said she expected this to happen in "about a month".

The Department for Immigration will then review the Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL). This is used to target Australia's skilled migration to people who have skills that are in demand, by giving those skills extra points in the eligibility test.

Steve Ingram, spokesperson for Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, said the new scheme was unlikely to affect the level of immigrants in the near future. -We have far more demand for skilled migration than places. There has been a drop in demand for temporary residence for skilled migration, and we see responses to that far more quickly than for permanent migration."