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THE General Skills Category (GSC) criteria have been adjusted to provide a points premium for migrants with offers of employment that are directly relevant to their qualifications or work experience.
Priority will be given to skilled migrants who are able to directly match their capabilities with skilled labour market opportunities in New Zealand. The adjustment took effect from February 4, 2002.
Applicants will then receive five points for an offer of employment relevant to their qualifications or work experience and two points for an offer of employment not relevant to their qualifications or work experience.
Currently, any job offer, whether or not it is relevant to qualifications or work experience, is awarded five points.
Allocation of points
Also from February 4, 2002, only applicants with a relevant job offer (one that is worth five points) will be able to claim points for work experience that is not relevant to their qualifications.
This means applicants with a non-relevant job offer (one that is worth two points) can only claim points for work experience that is relevant to their qualifications.
Previously, applicants with any offer of employment were awarded points for all work experience whether or not it was relevant to qualifications.
Why is the adjustment being made?
Experience shows that migrants are more likely to make a greater contribution to New Zealand's economic and social future, settle quickly and remain permanently if they are able to directly use their particular skills in their working lives.
The adjustment does recognise and does acknowledge that a job offer of some kind gives migrants a settlement advantage, and they will gain two points for settlement factors, it just doesn't necessarily qualify them for the premium number of points they can score. The aim of the adjustment is to focus migrant selection on those with high skill levels, and high employability and settlement potential.
This adjustment to policy makes it clear to people seeking residence in New Zealand that New Zealand welcomes highly qualified, highly skilled migrants and that we place a premium on ensuring that they settle well in New Zealand. New Zealanders do not like to see highly qualified people placed in inappropriate jobs.
It makes better social and economic sense for skilled and qualified migrants to have jobs where they can apply that training, and experience.
What happens to unprocessed applications?
Applications that were received before February 4 are being processed under the old policy. The new policy will apply to all applications received from February 4, 2002.
Why doesn't the Government increase the General Skills Category passmark?
Increasing the passmark primarily helps to manage the number of people who gain residence. Adjusting the passmark will not necessarily achieve the objective of linking desirable employability factors to gaining residence. This policy adjustment achieves our objective by directly linking a job offer relevant to qualifications or work experience to a points premium. This premium will continue to apply whether the passmark moves up or down in the future.
The assessment of whether a job offer is "relevant" and attracts five points, or "non relevant" and attracts two points, will be made by the NZIS. The NZIS has criteria for making those assessments. Those criteria are:
An offer of employment is assessed as relevant to a qualification if:
* The major subject area of the qualification for which the points have been awarded is directly applicable to the employment offer; or
* The offer of employment is in an occupation for which a core requirement is a qualification at the academic trade or technical level of the qualification for which points have been awarded.
An offer of employment is assessed as relevant to work experience if:
* The work experience for which points have been or may be awarded is directly applicable to the employment offered; and
* The offer of employment could not reasonably have been made if the applicant did not have that work experience.

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