VETASSESS occupation groups: the qualification level each one demands — and the sixth group its own FAQ still does not list

The VETASSESS group letter attached to an occupation is the single fact that decides what level of qualification is even eligible to be considered. It is printed at the top of every occupation page, next to the ANZSCO code, and it is not a formatting detail: Group A demands a bachelor’s degree in a highly relevant field, Group D will look at a Certificate III, and no amount of work experience moves an applicant between them.

Two things about the grouping are worth establishing before anything else, because both were verified on the same day and they do not agree with each other.

VETASSESS says five groups. Its occupation pages carry six

The Skilled Migration for Professionals FAQ states:

“VETASSESS has categorised its professional occupations into groups A, B, C, D and E for assessment purposes according to the indicative skill level on ANZSCO.”

The same FAQ prints the mapping:

• “Skill Level 1 Australian Bachelor degree or Master degree or Doctoral degree (Group A or B)”
• “Skill Level 2 Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Associate Degree or AQF Advanced Diploma or AQF Diploma (Group C or E)”
• “Skill Level 3 AQF Certificate III (with additional years of employment) or AQF Certificate IV (Group D)”

There is no Group F in that sentence and no Group F in that table. There is a Group F on the occupation pages. The Pet Groomer page opens “Pet Groomer is a VETASSESS Group F Occupation” and sets out three pathways built on “an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Certificate II or higher”. So does the Swimming Coach or Instructor page, and five others.

We read every professional occupation page listed in VETASSESS’s own sitemap on 3 September 2026 — 362 pages carrying a group letter, plus one page titled “test profession” that is evidently a site artefact. The distribution of group letters across those pages was: A 86, B 125, C 89, D 51, E 4, F 7.

A page count is not an occupation count, and we are not presenting it as one. Note, though, what VETASSESS itself publishes about the size of its list, on three of its own pages, all read the same day:

• the professional occupations landing page: “we assess more than 341 professional and other non-trade occupations”;
• the eligibility page: “The Australian Government has authorised us to provide skills assessments for 341 professional and other non-trade occupations”;
• the footer block that appears on the occupation pages themselves: “We assess 361 different professional occupations”.

If you have seen a round number for VETASSESS occupations quoted on a migration blog, it was not read off a page today. Neither the count nor the number of groups is stable across VETASSESS’s own site right now, which is the practical reason to open your own occupation page rather than trust a summary — including this one.

What each group sets as the floor

These are the group statements as they appear on the occupation pages, quoted rather than paraphrased. Note that the “or higher” enumerations differ between groups in a way that matters — see when a graduate diploma counts.

Group A — “This occupation requires a qualification assessed as comparable to the educational level of an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Bachelor degree or higher, in a field highly relevant to the nominated occupation.” The enumeration on these pages is narrow: “Bachelor degree or higher degree includes AQF Master Degree or AQF Doctoral Degree.”

Group A is the strictest structure on the site, and not because of the level. It is strict because most Group A occupations offer exactly one pathway. Of the 86 Group A pages we read, 76 set out a single pathway. The ten exceptions add a second pathway for a related-but-not-highly-relevant bachelor combined with a specific further qualification: six counselling and psychotherapy occupations, Dental Hygienist, Dental Therapist, Occupational Health and Safety Adviser, and Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

Group A Pathway 1 employment criteria, verbatim: “at least one year of post-qualification employment at an appropriate skill level, undertaken in the last five years, working 20 hours or more per week, and highly relevant to the nominated occupation.”

Group B — same educational floor as Group A, four pathways instead of one. This is the difference people miss when they compare two occupations at the same ANZSCO skill level. Taking the Management Consultant page:

• Pathway 1: bachelor or higher, highly relevant field, 1 year post-qualification employment.
• Pathway 2: bachelor or higher not highly relevant, plus “An additional qualification in a highly relevant field of study at a minimum AQF Diploma level”, 2 years.
• Pathway 3: bachelor or higher not highly relevant, no additional qualification, 3 years.
• Pathway 4: bachelor or higher “with or without a highly relevant major field of study”, 6 years of employment “that includes at least one year of highly relevant employment within the last five years before applying”.

Group C — “a qualification assessed as comparable to the educational level of an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Diploma or higher”. Four pathways: 1 year with a highly relevant diploma or above; 1 year where a non-relevant qualification is accompanied by “an additional qualification in a highly relevant field of study at a minimum AQF Certificate IV level”; 2 years with a non-relevant qualification alone; 4 years under the with-or-without pathway.

Group D — “a qualification assessed as comparable to the educational level of an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Certificate III or higher”. Taking the Auctioneer page: Certificate IV or higher in a highly relevant field, 1 year; Certificate IV or higher not highly relevant, 2 years; Certificate III in a highly relevant field, 3 years; Certificate IV or higher with or without a relevant major, 4 years. Group D also carries a splitting rule the other groups do not state so plainly: “The qualification level requirement AQF Certificate IV or higher can be satisfied by one qualification, while the requirement for a highly relevant major can be met by a separate qualification at a minimum of AQF Certificate III level.”

Group E — a small group, and the one that makes the FAQ’s skill-level table hard to read. The Anaesthetic Technician page states: “Applicants are required to have an AQF Diploma or higher level of qualification, along with minimum 1 year of highly relevant employment experience undertaken in the last five years.” One pathway. The four Group E pages we found are all clinical technician occupations.

Group F — Certificate II or higher, three pathways: 1 year (highly relevant field), 2 years (field not highly relevant), or 4 years “that includes at least one year of highly relevant employment within the last five years”. The Group F enumeration is the broadest on the site: “Certificate II or higher includes AQF Certificate III, Certificate IV, Diploma, Advanced Diploma, Associate Degree, Bachelor Degree, Graduate Diploma, Master Degree or Doctoral Degree.”

The three rules that make the group letter binding

You cannot mix pathways. The FAQ: “For a suitable outcome, applicants must meet the requirements for a pathway in full and on its own. The assessment criteria from one or more pathways cannot be combined or considered together.”

Experience does not substitute for level. The FAQ answers this as a standalone question: “VETASSESS Skills Assessment applications require an assessment of both qualifications and employment against the criteria for your nominated occupation. Highly relevant employment cannot compensate for lack of qualification at the required educational level for the nominated occupation.”

That sentence is the reason the group letter is worth reading before anything else. A Group A occupation with a Certificate IV is not a long-odds application; under the published criteria it is an application with no pathway in it.

It is also where VETASSESS differs most sharply from the other Australian assessing authority people compare it to. ACS operates a Recognition of Prior Learning pathway whose eligibility is a single line — “6 years of relevant work experience” — on a pathway that, in ACS’s words, “does not assess any tertiary qualifications” at all; see ACS RPL does not bridge a non-ICT degree. VETASSESS publishes no equivalent. Every VETASSESS pathway on every occupation page we read requires a qualification at a stated AQF level.

Occupation-specific criteria beat group criteria. The FAQ: “The group’s criteria are applied uniformly to all occupations in the group unless the occupation has special criteria (e.g., Diver, Beekeeper, etc.). In these occupations, the special occupation criteria take precedence over the group criteria.” That is not hypothetical: Diver is the one page in our census that sets out five pathways where the rest of Group D sets out four. Several occupation pages we read also carry extra requirements — organisational charts for managerial occupations, project lists, portfolios for design occupations, publication lists for University Lecturer. Those sit on top of the group rules, not instead of them.

What to do with this

1. Open your own occupation page on VETASSESS’s site and read the group letter next to the ANZSCO code. Everything else follows from it, and it is the one field a third-party summary is most likely to have copied from an older version of the criteria.
2. Read the “highly relevant major fields of study” list on that page, not a generic list. Group A and Group B share a level but not a structure, and Group B’s Pathway 2 and 3 exist precisely for people whose field does not match.
3. Count your post-qualification years against the pathway you actually intend to use, in full. Partial satisfaction of two pathways is explicitly not satisfaction of either.
4. If the level is short, the published criteria contain no experience-based workaround. The question becomes which qualification closes the level gap — which is a course-choice question, and the place to start is when VETASSESS counts a graduate diploma.
5. If your qualification is from a system whose degrees are shorter than Australia’s, the group letter is only half the problem; the other half is level comparability, covered in Nigerian HND and three-year bachelor degrees under VETASSESS.

This site summarises published rules. It is not VETASSESS, it does not perform assessments, and nothing here predicts what any assessor will conclude. VETASSESS states plainly that it “cannot tell you which visa is best for you, which state or territory list your occupation appears on, or whether you will meet the visa requirements” — for anything visa-shaped, go to the Department of Home Affairs or a registered migration agent.