Tips on Working in New Zealand

By Galia BarHava-Monteith

Applying for a certificate of approval - COA

Applying for a certificate of approval

Essential skills in demand list review 2014

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has completed its annual review of two of the Essential Skills in Demand (ESID) Lists – the Long Term Skill Shortage List (LTSSL) and the Immediate Skill Shortage List (ISSL). The Ministry regularly reviews the ESID lists to ensure that they meet the changing needs of the labour market, and to ensure opportunities for New Zealanders first. Changes will be made to these lists in March 2015.

Essential skills in demand list review 2014

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has completed its annual review of two of the Essential Skills in Demand (ESID) Lists – the Long Term Skill Shortage List (LTSSL) and the Immediate Skill Shortage List (ISSL). The Ministry regularly reviews the ESID lists to ensure that they meet the changing needs of the labour market, and to ensure opportunities for New Zealanders first. Changes will be made to these lists in March 2015.

Long Term Skill Shortage List

The LTSSL identifies occupations that have an absolute (sustained and ongoing) shortage of skilled workers both globally and throughout New Zealand. Migrants who gain employment in one of these occupations may be granted a work visa under the LTSSL Work to Residence or Essential Skills instructions. Migrants applying for residence under the Skilled Migrant Category may gain bonus points towards their application if they have an offer of employment, work experience or qualifications in an area of absolute skill shortage identified on the LTSSL.

The outcomes of the review of the LTSSL are to:

• retain six occupations which were reviewed:
  • General Practitioner
  • Physicist (Medical)
  • Registered Nurse (Aged Care)
  • Registered Nurse (Critical Care and Emergency)
  • Registered Nurse (Medical)
  • Registered Nurse (Perioperative)

The qualifications for using the LTSSL for Registered Nurses in Critical Care and Emergency, Medical, and Perioperative will be tightened to require five years relevant work experience (currently three years) to ensure that migrants are not competing with New Zealand nurse graduates for entry level positions.

• remove External Auditor
• remove the following 19 occupations for which there have been very low volumes of work visas over the last five years and for which other immigration options are more suited -
  

  Aeronautical Engineer	Life Scientist nec (Animal Scientist or Bioinformatics)
  Agricultural Engineer	Marine Designer
  Agricultural Scientist (Farm Systems Scientist)	Medical Oncologist
  Biomedical Engineer	Mining Engineer (excluding Petroleum)
  Biotechnologist (Genetics Scientist)	Network Analyst
  Cardiac Technician (Clinical Cardiac Physiologist including Perfusionist)	Nuclear Medicine Technologist
  Educational Psychologist	Radiation Oncologist
  Intensive Care Specialist	Social Professional nec (Applied Social Scientist)
  Life Scientist (Regulatory Toxicologist)	Transport Engineer
  Life Scientist nec (Anatomist or Physiologist (Clinical Respiratory Physiologist/Scientist))

  
  nec’ means Not Elsewhere Classified

• remove two occupations (Construction Project Manager (Chip sealing, Asphalt or other Technical Manager) (Roading and Infrastructure) and Environmental Research Scientist (Water Quality Analyst)) which have separate over-lapping listings on the LTSSL and are therefore redundant
• move University Lecturer from the LTSSL to the ISSL.

Immediate Skill Shortage List

The ISSL identifies occupations that have an immediate shortage of skilled workers either throughout New Zealand or in certain regions. Migrants wishing to work in occupations on the ISSL may be granted work visas under Essential Skills instructions if they meet the specified qualifications and/or experience requirements.

The outcomes of the review of the ISSL are to:

• retain Resident Medical Officer. The qualifications for using the ISSL will be tightened to require two years relevant work experience (currently one year) to ensure that migrants are not competing with New Zealand medical graduates for entry level positions.
  
• remove the following 23 occupations for which there have been very low volumes of work visas over the last five years and for which other immigration options are more suited –
  
  

  Biotechnologist	Maintenance Planner
  Cardiothoracic Surgeon	Microbiologist
  Clinical Coder	Mixed Crop Farmer
  Clinical Haematologist	Neurologist
  Dental Therapist	Neurosurgeon
  Dermatologist	Otorhinolaryngologist
  Earth Science Technician	Paediatric Surgeon
  Electronic Engineering Draftsperson	Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon
  Electronic Instrument Trades Worker (Special Class)	Thoracic Medicine Specialist
  Endocrinologist	Urologist
  Gastroenterologist	Vascular Surgeon
  Logging Plant Operator

• remove External Auditor^[1] and Flying Instructor (Glider Pilot Instructor)
• remove Other Sports Coach or Instructor (Skydive Instructor) which has a separate over-lapping listing on the ISSL.

Submissions to add Café or Restaurant Manager to the ISSL were declined.

Timing of Changes

The ESID changes will take effect in the next operational policy release in March 2015. Further work is currently being carried out to review the requirements which migrants need to satisfy to apply for a work visa or a residence visa using the skill shortage lists. This includes a review of qualifications in association with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, and some other changes to ensure that the requirements for using the lists are appropriate for the shortages.

Other Immigration Options

Removal from a skill shortage list does not mean that migrants cannot come to New Zealand. Other immigration options are available for employers and prospective migrants. These include:

• Essential Skills work visa policy (subject to an employer demonstrating that they have tried to recruit New Zealanders for the position and been unsuccessful)
• Accredited Employer - facilitating recruitment of skilled workers from overseas where the salary is at least NZ$55,000 per annum. This option provides a pathway to residence.
• Approval in Principle – where a number of migrants are being sought
• Skilled Migrant Category – under which migrants can apply for residence in New Zealand.

The Canterbury Skills and Employment Hub can facilitate employment of New Zealanders in Canterbury, and if there are no suitable applicants, can facilitate visa applications for migrant workers. Also, the Canterbury Skill Shortage List contains some occupations in shortage for the Canterbury rebuild (in addition those on the ISSL and LTSSL).

Other Matters

The Essential Skills in Demand Lists are reviewed and updated regularly in order to ensure that the Ministry’s policy is flexible and responsive to changing economic and labour market conditions.  As part of reviews, information is gathered from submissions made by external stakeholders and this is considered alongside economic, labour market and immigration data.  It is important that the lists reflect genuine skill shortages so New Zealanders are not disadvantaged in seeking employment and training.

You can test whether an occupation is on any of the three shortage lists or on the list of occupations recognised for residence applications under the Skilled Migrant Category by using the skill shortage list checker. This provides information and the requirements for each of the lists.

We expect the next ESID review to commence in April 2015.

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^[1] External Auditor is being removed from both the LTSSL and ISSL

Page Last Updated: 16 Dec 2014