Rehabilitation Counsellor (ANZSCO 272114)

On the Short-term Skilled Occupation List and Core Skills Occupation List

From the official Home Affairs skilled occupation lists, as at 2026-08-12. Lists change at each government update — always confirm on the official page before acting.

Which lists is Rehabilitation Counsellor on?

STSOL — Short-term Skilled Occupation List. Occupations on the STSOL can access state-nominated and regional skilled visas (190/491), but not the Skilled Independent 189.

CSOL — Core Skills Occupation List. The employer-sponsorship list — occupations on the CSOL can be nominated for the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) and the Employer Nomination Scheme 186.

Visas this occupation can access

Being on a list makes the occupation nominatable for these visas — each visa still has its own requirements (points, age, English, a positive skills assessment, and for sponsored visas a willing employer or state).

Skills assessment

A positive skills assessment for Rehabilitation Counsellor comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

VETASSESS assesses Rehabilitation Counsellor as a Group A occupation with its own narrower qualification field list, distinct from the rest of this unit group: highly relevant fields are Rehabilitation Counselling, Rehabilitation Studies or Rehabilitation Science, Behavioural Science, and Psychology — plus at least one year of highly relevant post-qualification employment in the last five years. VETASSESS states directly that adjacent-sounding qualifications will usually fall short here: "Qualifications in Allied Health disciplines and Nursing would not usually meet the requirements," a specific written warning that does not appear on any of the other six occupation pages in this same unit group.

Where these applications come unstuck

Rehabilitation Counsellor's own VETASSESS page carries the shortest exclusion list in the whole unit group — only Drug and Alcohol Counsellor is named as not considered under this code. Every other counsellor code excludes all five of its siblings by name, and every other page bar this one closes with the standard line directing psychologist-adjacent applicants to APS. Neither the broader exclusion list nor the APS-referral line appears here, which reads as a content gap on VETASSESS's own site rather than a deliberately narrower boundary — worth confirming directly with VETASSESS rather than assuming this code is more permissive than the rest.

An honest read on this pathway

Rehabilitation Counsellor carries STSOL plus CSOL, reaching six visas — 186, 190, 407, 482, 491 and 494 — including genuine employer sponsorship, a materially wider reach than Careers Counsellor, Family and Marriage Counsellor or Counsellors nec, all three of which sit on STSOL alone with no CSOL at all. Its own narrower field-of-study list, and the explicit warning against Allied Health and Nursing qualifications, means the qualification bar is genuinely different from its siblings even though the visa reach looks identical to Drug and Alcohol Counsellor, Student Counsellor and Psychotherapist.

VETASSESS assesses qualifications and employment separately. Both need documentation that agrees with itself. The Employment History Builder and Document Vault organise each trail before you lodge.

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Rehabilitation Counsellor is your best route depends on your points, experience evidence and timing — exactly what a MARA-registered agent works through in an initial consultation. Describe your situation once through Migratio and compare real consultation quotes from registered agents, free.

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