There are significant changes brought into the skilled migration scheme in Australia from Feb 8 2010.
More changes are expected in the months to come and a completely overhauled procedure is expected to be in place from mid 2010.

The Australian government now wants a targeted, high value, demand driven skilled migration programme that meets the Australian labour market. The existing scheme had many weak areas and anomalies.

With this in view the present SOL will be changed and drastic changes could be expected. There could also be regular changes to SOL in the light of labour market needs in Australia. The point score for permanent residency may change.

The points for skills too will be changed with many trade skills being given less points and many professional skills getting more points. It is quite possible that English standards will be toughened in the new migration points test mid year.

Australia definitely needs skilled migrants. Many are expected in Australia within the next 2-3 decades. A main and an easy source of skilled migrants will be international students. For Australia international students are a big source of income. Therefore students will still be very welcome to seek permanent residency in the future too but those who will be able to seek residency in Australia and join the labour force will be professionals.

Students seeking tertiary education and desiring to join the Australian workforce must thus select their courses of studies carefully. They must aim at selecting courses offered by universities as those who would succeed mostly will be those with university degrees.

Students must also be aware of the need for better English capabilities. The possibility that the government will raise the English entry score from six to seven under the IELTS System is high because it is proven that poor standard of English among many graduates resulted in the majority failing to find work in the industry - some accountancy graduates from Asian countries drive taxis.

With such drastic changes it is advisable that prospective students seek assistance of a good student agency like Edlocate where quality guidance by educated mature and understanding counsellors could be obtained.

Students could enrol in one of the 14 universities it directly represents spread in almost all States of Australia. (Deakin is the latest university to be represented by Edlocate)