Licensed trades: why the skills assessment and the visa do not let you work, and how the state licence is obtained

MARN 1576536

Two systems, two tests

The Commonwealth decides who may enter and stay; the states decide who may do licensed work. A skills assessment by Trades Recognition Australia answers the Commonwealth's question for the visa: is this person skilled in the nominated occupation to the standard the migration rules require. It is accepted by the Department, and by no state regulator as a licence. The state's question is different: does this person meet the licensing standard for this work in this jurisdiction, including Australian standards, wiring rules, safety legislation and local practice. Both tests have to be passed, in that order, and a person who has passed the first has not started the second. The migration side is on the TRA page; this page is the second test.

Which trades are licensed

• Electrical work in every state and territory: electricians, electrical fitters, linespersons, and electrical work within other trades.
• Plumbing, drainage and gas fitting in every state and territory, with the categories and classes varying by jurisdiction.
• Refrigeration and air-conditioning: the handling of refrigerant is licensed nationally, and the electrical and plumbing elements of the work are licensed by the states.
• Building and construction trades in some states: builders everywhere, and in some states carpenters, bricklayers, painters, tilers and others require a licence or registration to contract or to carry out work above a value.
• Other regulated occupations with their own registration: motor vehicle repairers in some states, security, high-risk work such as scaffolding, rigging and crane operation under the national high-risk work licence.

Chefs, cooks, mechanics in most states, welders and most metal trades are not licensed, and for them the skills assessment and the visa are the whole requirement.

The Offshore Technical Skills Record

For the licensed trades, and for applicants from the countries where the program applies, Trades Recognition Australia runs the Offshore Skills Assessment Program, and the successful applicant receives an Offshore Technical Skills Record alongside the skills assessment outcome. The record sets out the technical competencies assessed against the Australian qualification for the trade, and it is the document the state regulators were designed to accept: with it, most states issue a provisional or restricted licence on arrival that allows supervised work while the gap training and local experience are completed. Without it, where the assessment was by another pathway or the program did not apply, the regulator assesses the person's qualifications and experience itself, which is slower and often requires more training. An applicant who has a choice of assessment pathway chooses the one that produces the record.

What the state regulator asks for

• The Offshore Technical Skills Record or, failing it, the overseas qualification, the skills assessment and the employment history for assessment against the Australian qualification.
• Identity, the visa, and evidence of work rights.
• Completion of the gap training units the regulator specifies for the trade: typically Australian wiring rules and safe working for electricians, Australian plumbing standards and water regulations for plumbers, gas regulations for gas fitters.
• A period of supervised work in Australia in some states and trades, recorded and signed off by the supervising licence holder.
• A licensing examination in some trades and states, for example an electrical licensing assessment.
• The fee, and in some states a probity check.

Each state publishes its requirements for overseas-trained applicants, and they differ enough that the state you are going to is decided before the licence is planned. Several states run programs that bundle the gap training and the provisional licence for migrant tradespeople.

Provisional and restricted licences

The usual bridge is a provisional, restricted or supervised licence: a licence that allows the holder to do the trade's work under the supervision of a fully licensed person while the conditions for the full licence are met, for a limited period. It is applied for on arrival with the Offshore Technical Skills Record, and it is what makes a sponsored tradesperson employable in the trade from the first weeks. Its conditions are the regulator's: the degree of supervision, the work excluded, the period allowed to complete the gap training and the experience. A provisional licence that lapses before the full licence is obtained leaves the person unable to work in the trade at all, so the gap training is booked on arrival, not when convenient.

Gap training and supervised experience

Gap training is delivered by registered training organisations against the units the regulator names, usually in weeks of part-time study, and it is the part that overseas tradespeople most underestimate, because it is about Australian rules rather than trade skill. Supervised experience is a set number of hours or months under a licensed supervisor who signs the record, and it has to be arranged with an employer who holds the licence and is willing to supervise. The two run together, and the total is commonly a few months for an electrician with the record in hand and longer for a plumber or gas fitter in a state with more categories. The time is known in advance and is planned into the visa and the job.

What you can lawfully do meanwhile

Supervised work under a provisional licence, where one is held. Trade assistant and labouring work that is not licensed work, within the visa's occupation condition. Nothing else. Unlicensed electrical, plumbing or gas work is an offence under state law with penalties for the worker and the employer, it voids insurance, and for a sponsored worker it is a breach that the sponsor's monitoring record will show. A sponsored worker's condition 8607 requires work in the nominated occupation; a supervised role within that occupation at the nominated salary satisfies it, a role as a labourer does not, and the employer's nomination has to describe the role that will in fact be done during the licensing period. The change-of-duties guide explains why the description matters.

For the employer

An employer sponsoring an overseas tradesperson is sponsoring someone who cannot work unsupervised for the first months, at a salary that must meet the nominated amount from the first day. The nomination is built on that: a position description that includes the supervised period, a supervisor who holds the licence, the gap training arranged and paid for or at least scheduled, and the licence application lodged in the first week. An employer in a licensed trade that holds no licence itself cannot supervise and should not sponsor. A nomination that assumes a licensed worker on day one, and a worker who arrives to find there is no supervisor, is the arrangement that ends in a breach on both sides.

Planning the sequence

1. Choose the state before the assessment, because the state decides the licensing route.
2. Take the assessment pathway that produces the Offshore Technical Skills Record where it is available for your country and trade.
3. With the assessment, obtain the visa, employer-sponsored or points-tested.
4. Before arrival, identify the gap training provider and, for a sponsored worker, the licensed supervisor.
5. On arrival, apply for the provisional licence and enrol in the gap training in the first week.
6. Complete the supervised period and the examination if any, and apply for the full licence.
7. Keep the licence current and, on moving interstate, apply for mutual recognition before working.

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General information only, current at October 2026; not advice on your own case. Trade licensing is governed by state and territory legislation and each regulator’s requirements, which differ and change; the migration skills assessment is governed by Trades Recognition Australia’s program rules. WIDEN advises on the migration side and the sequence; licensing decisions are the regulator’s. Outcomes depend on the Department’s assessment of each application; no registered migration agent can guarantee a result (Code of Conduct, Migration Agents Regulations). Keshab Chapagain, MARN 1576536.