Youth Worker (ANZSCO 411716)

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 Youth 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.

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 Youth Worker comes from:

What the assessment actually involves

Youth Worker runs the family's usual AQF Level 5 diploma floor and specialised/non-specialised split: a youth-work-specialised diploma, including Youth Workers Australia (YWA) accredited courses, needs about 1 year of paid employment in a youth services setting; a generalist community-services diploma needs 2 years in the same setting. The specialised route carries an extra evidence item most of the other 4117 codes' specialised routes don't name at this scale: fieldwork placement evidence within a youth work setting of no less than 400 hours. The shared qualification-comparability, English and currency criteria apply across the rest of the family.

Where these applications come unstuck

Youth Worker's specialised route looks like the fastest path on paper — half the employment duration — but it is a 4117 code whose specialised route names a specific placement-hours minimum (400 hours) as a separate evidence item, on top of the employment history itself. An applicant who holds a YWA-accredited qualification but never tracked or can't document those placement hours can find the shorter route effectively closed even though the qualification itself qualifies. As with Family Support Worker and Residential Care Officer, the family's shared exclusion of hands-on supervision and personal-care work applies here too if the real duties sat closer to direct care than casework.

An honest read on this pathway

Youth Worker sits on STSOL and CSOL with 186 and 482 both open, so employer sponsorship is a genuine route, and the YWA-accredited specialised pathway is a real advantage for graduates of that specific course. But the 400-hour placement evidence requirement means the shorter specialised timeline is conditional on documentation an applicant may not have kept, not just on holding the right qualification title — worth checking against actual placement records before assuming the 1-year figure applies. Applicants without a YWA-accredited background fall to the non-specialised 2-year route regardless of how youth-focused their actual job was, since the authority reads the qualification's field, not the work history alone.

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 Youth 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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