A Beginner’s Guide to The Skills Assessment Process in Australia

So, you’ve decided to practice medicine in Australia. The Down Under is notorious for being a difficult place for IMGs to gain registration practice medicine in. A lot of IMGs who’ve been through the process of registration to practice in Australia would tell you to just pick another country. However, other IMGs will tell you that the benefits of living in Australia outweigh the struggles of going through the skills assessment process.

The author of this article is part of the second group, currently in the beginning of the process. A ton of confusion surrounds every step of the process and so I’ll be penning a series of articles based on the extensive research I’ve done to breakdown and simply the process to hopefully make your life easier. Unlike other potential routes IMGs have such as the US Match, you can only begin the process to obtain registration is Australia after you’ve graduated from your medical school back home.

To make some sense of the chaos and to understand the various pathways for obtaining medical registration, it’s best to start by understanding the various players in the skills assessment and registration processes.

These are the 6 that concern you:

1. Australian Medical Board (AMB) – Registers all medical practitioners and students;

2. Australian Medical Council (AMC) – is the Australian verifications authority for all medical qualifications and also conducts the Standard Pathway assessment examinations;

3. Approved Competent Authorities are international authorities who are approved by the Australian Medical Board to assess applied medical knowledge and basic clinical skills – only needed for the Competent Authority Pathway;

4. Australian Specialist Medical Colleges – conduct the Specialist Pathway assessments.

5. Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) – provide verification of medical qualifications through their Electronic Portfolio of International Credentials (EPIC) service;

6. Last but not least, you, the applicant.

I’ll briefly mention the steps you need to take towards your goal and expand in a separate article if needed.

Step 1. Confirm that your primary qualification is recognized by the AMC. For standard pathway and specialist pathway applicants, your qualification must also be recognized by the World Directory of Medical Schools.

Step 2. Get Primary Source Verification on all your qualifications. You need to create an EPIC account and submit all your qualifications. We go over the steps and possible hiccups you may experience here.

Step 3. Once you have an EPIC Account, you need to nominate the AMC to receive verification status updates.

Step 4. Establish an AMC Portfolio. They will receive the verifications from EPIC which will be used for your skills assessment. You can apply for an AMC account here.

Step 5. Start the skills assessment process via 1 of the 3 relevant pathways:

· Standard Pathway: Most IMGs will go through the Standard Pathway which we discuss in detail here. In brief, start the AMC examinations process by selecting the “AMC examinations” option on your AMC account. Once you have passed both AMC examinations, (or the AMC CAT ACQ examination and the workplace assessment) you will be issued with an AMC certificate to submit to the Medical Board of Australia for registration purposes.

· Competent Authority Pathway: submit an application directly to the Medical Board of Australia. We go over the Competent Authority Pathway in detail here.

· Specialist Pathway: Submit your Specialist application directly to the appropriate specialist medical college for assessment. For more details, we break down the Specialist Pathway here.

Registration

Once you have completed the skills assessment process, you will require registration to work in Australia. The Australian Medical Board (AMB) is responsible for registration and all applicants must meet registration standards for:

· Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

· Criminal History

· English Language Skills (IELTS: 7 in all bands)

· Recency of Practice

· Professional Indemnity Insurance

Details of these requirements can be found here.

Types of registration:

There are four types of registration with the AMB relevant to skills assessment applicants:

· Limited

· Provisional

· General

· Specialist

Applicants who have successfully completed skills assessments under the:

· Standard pathway may be eligible for limited or provisional registration.

· Competent Authority pathway may be eligible for provisional registration.

· Specialist pathway may be eligible for limited, provisional or specialist registration depending on the outcome of their skills assessment.

Applicants who successfully attain limited or provisional registration are eligible to apply for general registration with the AMB following satisfactory completion of 12 months of supervised practice (minimum of 47 weeks of full-time service).