Assessments
We assess the skills and competency of overseas-trained pharmacists who wish to migrate or register to practise pharmacy in Australia.
Pharmacy education and training environments vary around the world. We assess candidates’ qualifications and experience to ensure that they are eligible to practise in Australia.
Pharmacy education and training environments vary around the world. We assess candidates’ qualifications and experience to ensure that they are eligible to practise in Australia.
APC is a skilled migration assessing authority approved by the Australian Government.
We have recently made changes to the IT systems we use to manage assessment applications. The changes have helped us reduce the time we take to process eligibility checks. This is the important first step for overseas trained pharmacists wishing to practise in Australia.
New policies
In the last year, we have published a number of policies and standards which formalise our processes and candidates’ requirements for obtaining an ‘eligibility check’.
Our Assessments Standards describe the specific criteria that candidates must meet to be assessed as eligible for our overseas trained pathways to registration in Australian OR for the issuing of an APC Skills Assessment Outcome for the Department of Home Affairs to support a visa application. Candidates who are assessed as meeting all of the criteria via our ‘eligibility check’ are eligible to register and sit our examinations.
Candidates who submit an application for an ‘eligibility check’ must provide specific documents as evidence. Our new Skills Assessment Document Policy describes the types of documents we accept.
As part of our processing of eligibility check applications, we complete checks to verify the legitimacy of the information that has been submitted. Our new Fraudulent Document Policy describes how we manage situations in which we detect fraudulent documents. The policy applies to documents submitted to us both when applying for an eligibility check, but also when registering for an exam.
Australian Government Migrant Skills Incentives
With the pharmacy profession now included on the Australian government’s Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL), APC was also invited to participate in the Commonwealth Government skilled migration incentives pilots to support overseas trained pharmacists to work in Australia. APC has fully supported the Commonwealth in their skilled migration incentives. In late 2021, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment -DESE (now the Department of Workplace Relations – DEWR) released two requests for tender for skilled migration support pilots to assist with Australia’s economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 and to fill skills shortages. APC was successful in being included in the first two Pilot Programs:
Pilot 1 : Faster Migrant Skills Assessments
As part of Pilot 1, APC processed 140 applications through the faster Migrant Skills Assessment process. This pilot provided support to accelerate the finalisation of skills outcomes for applicable candidates.
Migration Incentive 1 Candidates by Origin
Pilot 2 : Skills Assessments Opportunities for Migrants
This initiative offers free skills assessments for eligible candidates. We have participated in the initiatives for overseas trained pharmacists and have been able to provide a free eligibility check and exam sitting for overseas trained pharmacists who meet the government’s eligibility criteria. This program continues throughout 2022-23.
We have provided support for the incentives by promoting them on our social media channels, publishing information on our website and installing pop up ‘reminders’ for all candidates submitting an application on our Candidate Portal to check their eligibility against the government’s criteria. We have also responded to email and phone enquiries from a large number of individuals wanting to check their eligibility.
Eligibility check applications
In the 2021-2022 financial year, we received a total of 1225 applications for a skills assessment eligibility check, an increase of 44% on 2020-21. This is a significant increase compared to previous years, which has likely occurred partly due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migration and travel since 2020 and importantly, the inclusion of pharmacists on the Priority Migration Skills Occupation List (PMSOL), creating greater opportunities for qualified pharmacists.
Applications Received by Financial Year:
Country of qualification
Applications were received from 60 countries, where their primary country of training was not Australia. The main countries from which assessment applications were received include:
Country of Qualification Data
| Country of Qualification | Number of candidates |
| INDIA | 282 |
| EGYPT | 145 |
| PHILIPPINES | 127 |
| PAKISTAN | 70 |
| SOUTH AFRICA | 34 |
| UNITED KINGDOM | 30 |
| NEPAL | 27 |
| ZIMBABWE | 27 |
| THAILAND | 24 |
| MALAYSIA | 21 |
| IRAN (ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF) | 20 |
| BANGLADESH | 18 |
| NIGERIA | 18 |
| OTHER (<10) | 332 |
Country of qualification candidate percentage
Skills assessment outcome letters
If candidates pass our ‘eligibility check’, they are eligible to sit the specific exam for their pathway to registration which is either:
- Knowledge Assessment of Pharmaceutical Sciences (KAPS) exam, or
- Competency Assessment of Overseas Pharmacists (CAOP) exam.
If they pass the exam, we issue them with a Skills Assessment Letter (SAL), validating their knowledge and competency. The SAL can then be used to:
- apply to the Pharmacy Board of Australia for provisional or limited registration as a pharmacist
- provide to the Department of Home Affairs for migration purposes.
In the 2021-2022 financial year, we issued the following Skills Assessment Letters:
549 Knowledge Stream and Competency Stream candidates
205 International students of Australian and New Zealand pharmacy programs
Assessing for the Council on Chiropractic Education Australasia
We also assess the qualifications and skills of chiropractors trained in or outside of Australia or New Zealand on behalf of the Council on Chiropractic Education Australasia (CCEA).
Like us, they are an independent, nationally recognised body responsible for ensuring competency standards in the chiropractic profession. They perform activities like accrediting and monitoring chiropractic education programs in Australasia.
On average, we receive around 30 applications from CCEA applicants each year.