Welfare Worker (ANZSCO 272613)

On the Short-term Skilled 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 Welfare Worker 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.

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 Welfare Worker comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Welfare Worker sits apart from its 4117 near-namesakes on qualification level: Criterion 1 explicitly requires an AQF Level 7 bachelor's degree, not a diploma, and its non-accredited-qualification employment threshold is correspondingly the highest short of Welfare Centre Manager in this family — 2 years, not the 1-to-2-year range the diploma-level codes use. The same qualification-comparability logic applies (an accredited course, a recognised equivalent bachelor's, or a relevant non-accredited bachelor's), alongside the family's shared English (IELTS 7 across every band) and currency tests. Community Work Australia's own glossary entry for this occupation's skill level reads AQF Level 5/7, which is inconsistent with Criterion 1's explicit bachelor's-degree text — treat the criterion, not the glossary, as the operative rule.

Where these applications come unstuck

Community Work Australia states, in writing, on Welfare Worker's own DAMA-pathway page, that ANZSCO 4117 Welfare Support Workers is an occupation not considered relevant to Welfare Worker — the entire unit group covering Community Worker, Disability Services Officer, Family Support Worker, Residential Care Officer and Youth Worker is excluded outright, by the authority's own written statement, not by inference. Nominating Welfare Worker on evidence that actually supports a diploma-level 4117 code, or the reverse, is not a borderline judgement call in the authority's eyes; it is picking the wrong occupation family. The AQF Level 5/7 glossary inconsistency is a genuine source of confusion worth flagging rather than resolving by assumption.

An honest read on this pathway

Welfare Worker sits on STSOL only, with no CSOL listing and therefore no 186 or 482 — despite requiring the family's second-highest qualification bar. Its open visas are 190, 407, 491 and 494: state-nominated, temporary work-and-holiday, provisional-regional and skilled-regional routes, not direct employer sponsorship. An applicant who holds a genuine welfare bachelor's degree and assumes the higher qualification buys wider visa access than the diploma-level 4117 codes will find the opposite is true here: Community Worker, Family Support Worker, Residential Care Officer and Youth Worker all reach 482 and 186 on a diploma; Welfare Worker, on its bachelor's, does not.

Going through Trades Recognition Australia? TRA pathways lean heavily on documented work history and evidence of on-the-job experience. The Employment History Builder reconstructs it with gap detection, so the record you submit holds together.

Talk it through with a registered agent

Whether nominating Welfare Worker 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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