Similar to the field of marketing, in fact, this subject has developed to the point today of being a real cosmos of micro-specialisations. The omniscient figure of the Information Technician who is perfectly up to date in any field of IT, almost doesn’t exist today. Whereas toward the end of the nineties, IT had more or less two specialisations (hardware and software), today we find a myriad of specific professions in the Skilled Occupation List:

• ICT business analyst – 261111
• System analyst – 261112
• Multimedia specialist – 261211
• Analyst programmer – 261311
• Developer programmer – 261312
• Software engineers – 261313
• Software and applications programmers – 261399
• ICT security specialist – 262112
• Computer network and systems engineer – 263111
• ICT project manager – 135112 –
• ICT managers – 135199
• ICT trainer – 223211
• Web developer – 261212
• Software tester – 261314
• Database administrator – 262111
• Systems administrator – 262113
• Network administrator – 263112
• Network analyst – 263113
• ICT Quality assurance engineer – 263211
• ICT support engineer – 26212
• ICT systems test engineer – 263213
• ICT support and test engineers – 263299
• ICT customer support officer – 313112 Skill Level 2
• Web administrator – 313113 Skill Level 2
• ICT support technicians – 313199 Skill Level 2

Those interested in studying IT with a view to any sort of conversion to a permanent visa, are strongly advised to seek targeted advice before choosing a course so as to avoid having to run for cover after already investing in a course. The difficulty is that there are twenty-five different professions, relating to three different assessment authorities (EA, TRA, ACS), and two different skill levels. Unlike the courses in telecommunications, the professional courses in IT are totally disadvantaged compared with the university ones in terms of being able to be successfully converted to permanent, as there are no professions (at the time of writing) classified as Skill Level 2 on the Medium-Long Term List. This means that none of the courses in IT under the VET category (vocational courses) can give you the right to a 485 Post-Graduate Visa, which is fundamental for accruing post-qualification experience and thus obtaining a permanent visa. Vocational courses in IT can, however, be valid choices should you wish to consider them as pre-university options (as they are less expensive and introductory, as well as being recognizable in terms of credits) or post-university as specialisations.

The university courses in IT however, represent an excellent investment, not only for their potential of a long-term visa in Australia, but also for the skills set which is useful throughout the world.

Qualification: Certificate IV / Diploma in Information Technology
Skill Level:
Course program:
Description: of all the vocational courses in IT, this is considered to be the most versatile. The Certificate IV provides the basis of IT grammar for anyone who has not been exposed to the subject before. The diploma, on the other hand, has six general subjects and then leaves space for the student’s choice of a field of application, which can be selected to balance the program as you please between programming, systems, cloud technology or security.

Qualification: Diploma in Website Development
Course program: https://training.gov.au/TrainingComponentFiles/ICT/ICT50615_R3.pdf
Description: this type of course restricts the teaching of IT to the set of skills required for planning, developing, managing and delivering a website with the look and functionality required by the client.

Qualification: Certificate IV / Diploma in Cyber Security
Course program: https://training.gov.au/training/details/10621NAT
Description: this sort of course is one of the most funded by companies, constantly seeking to protect their business secrets as well as their clients’, collected in the databases. The training consultant is able to assess the vulnerability of a certain IT system, identify any compromises in the systems and indicate corrective and preventive measures not only from external hacking but particularly from attempts at internal espionage.