Criteria for a Manager for the Purpose of Migration

The Australian Institute of Management is contracted as an assessing authority by the Australian Government to assess senior management skills for applicants for the purpose of skilled migration to Australia. AIM is authorised to use its nationally recognised senior membership criteria to assess all applications.

Managers are assessed against these criteria and not the functions of the general managerial occupations, as set out in the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO).

Guidelines are based on the level of work experience, training and qualifications achieved.

To satisfy these requirements applicants must hold a senior management position and for your information the criteria used are as follows:

• A proven record of top management achievement over a continuous period of at least five (5) years in a position such as Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director, President or General Manager; or,
• A proven record in a senior functional management position in a large organisation, employing 600 employees or more, over a continuous period of at least five (5) years, requiring the delegation of authority to several other managers who themselves hold positions requiring the delegation of work to several other subordinates in supervisory, technical or skilled positions.

The years of experience may be reduced if the applicant has qualifications in management studies or business administration assessed as comparable to an Australian Bachelor, Post Graduate or Master degree, or in a discipline relevant to the field in which the manager is working. This applies where the qualification concerned has been completed immediately prior to, or within the relevant time frame of years of management experience being assessed. The Country Education Profiles prepared by the National Office of Overseas Skills Recognition are the basis for an educational assessment.

The complexity and size of the management task will influence the assessment. Applicants would require senior management experience across a diverse range of functional areas, with staff with diverse functional responsibilities and at a management level. A manager at a senior level would also have a high level of discretionary decision making authority.

Senior managers tend to manage departments servicing the overall operations of the organisation and where delegation to several subordinate managers involved in specific but related functions is required. An area of potential confusion is the issue of having managers reporting to a manager.

The critical components in applying these criteria are the breadth and depth of the applicant’s own managerial responsibilities and those of the subordinate managers reporting directly to the applicant. The issue is not only that the organisational chart shows that the applicant supervises a number of direct reporting managers. If they all carry out similar functions in an area such as sales and marketing, human resources or supply and distribution, then this, of itself, would not be sufficient to warrant consideration as a senior manager.

The criteria for recognition as having skills equivalent to that of a senior manager make it clear that the person must be responsible for a range of organisational functions and to have such responsibilities at a level which is concerned with strategy and policy across the whole organisation, and not just operations.

Our assessment is based upon a review of an entire career history, but with an emphasis on the past five (5) years, and satisfactory evidence is sought of managerial progression through increased authority and responsibility of each position thereby demonstrating a period of sustained success.

If you believe you meet these criteria, please proceed to step 2:

Submit a Management Skills Assessment form with your personal details and supporting documentation. A non-refundable application fee of AUD$360* is required upon submission. Please take time to fully complete the form, as incomplete applications may be returned.

Download the AIM information booklet and application form for assessment of management skills for migration:

Management Skills Assessment form
PDF format [158Kb]

* Application fees paid by applicants residing in Australia will incur 10% GST. Fees paid for applicants who do not reside in Australia are GST free.