Mechanical Engineering Technician (ANZSCO 312512)

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 Mechanical Engineering Technician 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 Mechanical Engineering Technician comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

CORRECTED 2026-09-04. The 2026-08-29 entry here named a specific qualification TRA supposedly requires for this code. A verified 63-source pass across TRA's whole captured site found that TRA publishes no per-occupation qualification requirement at all, so that figure had nothing behind it. TRA assesses Mechanical Engineering Technician through the same five-program structure as the rest of this family — Migration Skills Assessment for most offshore permanent cases, the Temporary Skills Shortage program for a Skills in Demand visa, the Offshore Skills Assessment Program where mandated, the Job Ready Program for an Australian-RTO graduate. The evidence bar is uniform across programs: a formal, trade-relevant qualification is required, work experience cannot substitute for one, and TRA states that bachelor's degrees generally lack the practical trade content a trade-related occupation needs. TRA does not publish the specific AQF level it wants for this code on any public page — only inside a downloadable qualifications document whose content could not be checked.

Where these applications come unstuck

The mechanical pair behaves differently again from its electrical and electronic cousins. 312511 Mechanical Engineering Draftsperson, the Engineers-Australia-assessed neighbour, carries the Regional Occupation List and Core Skills Occupation List but misses the points-tested and graduate-visa routes entirely. This Technician code adds the Short-term Skilled Occupations List, which opens a state-nomination pathway the Draftsperson code cannot reach. Chasing that extra access by nominating this code for what is actually drafting-shaped work sends a design case file to TRA's testing-and-assembly-shaped criteria — not the shortcut it looks like.

An honest read on this pathway

On the Short-term Skilled Occupations List and the Core Skills Occupation List, reaching a visa the Draftsperson sibling lacks along with the standard employer-sponsored routes. Neither ANZSCO occupation in this pair — Draftsperson or Technician — carries a registration-or-licensing flag, unlike the electrical and electronic pairs, so there is no separate state-licensing overlay specifically flagged for mechanical work at the classification level.

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 Mechanical Engineering Technician 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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