Butcher or Smallgoods Maker (ANZSCO 351211)

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 Butcher or Smallgoods Maker 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 Butcher or Smallgoods Maker comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Butcher or Smallgoods Maker is assessed under whichever of TRA's five programs matches your occupation, passport country, study location and visa type — TRA states plainly it cannot process an application lodged into the wrong one. The documentary Migration Skills Assessment is the typical route: passport identification, the trade qualification and its transcripts, an Employer Template per job, and pay records that corroborate the employment claimed. No English test applies. As with every occupation TRA assesses, a qualification cannot be substituted by experience — "TRA does not accept work experience as a substitute for a qualification" — and an occupational licence does not substitute for one either. Butcher or Smallgoods Maker sits at ANZSCO Skill Level 3, the same tier as Baker and Cook.

Where these applications come unstuck

The specific trap for this trade is the meat industry sponsorship offer. Home Affairs' Meat Industry Labour Agreement sponsors a single generic role, Skilled Meat Worker, administered under a placeholder code because "there is currently no ANZSCO code" for it — and its duties are abattoir-floor slaughtering, boning and dressing, not the retail and production butchery ANZSCO 3512 describes. A Butcher offered "meat industry sponsorship" is not automatically being offered 351211 — the role on the table may be the abattoir occupation instead, and the two are not interchangeable for visa nomination purposes even though an outsider would call both "butcher."

An honest read on this pathway

Butcher or Smallgoods Maker sits on STSOL and CSOL, reaching the 186, 190, 407, 482, 491 and 494 visas, but not the 189 or 485 — the occupation is not on the MLTSSL. It is not named in either the Restaurant (Premium Dining) or Meat Industry labour agreement templates checked, so sponsorship most plausibly runs through a standard 482 or 186 with an employer whose role genuinely matches the retail and production duties ANZSCO describes, evidenced through the same documentary TRA process every occupation in this family faces.

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 Butcher or Smallgoods Maker 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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