Engineers Australia: Engineering Skills Assessment via the CDR

Engineers Australia is the body that assesses skills for engineering occupations. The factor that decides your pathway is whether your engineering qualification falls under an international recognition accord.

Two pathways: an accord or the CDR

If your qualification falls under a recognition accord (such as the Washington, Sydney or Dublin Accord), Engineers Australia usually recognises it under that accord and the file is more streamlined. If it does not — the case for many engineering qualifications from outside accord countries — the common pathway is to submit a Competency Demonstration Report (CDR).

What the CDR contains

The CDR is a document you write yourself to demonstrate your engineering competency: it includes Career Episodes (detailed descriptions of engineering projects or work you have done) and a Summary Statement mapping your competencies. The CDR demands careful, honest writing — copying or having it ghost-written is a serious risk, because Engineers Australia checks for plagiarism.

Fees and timing

Assessment fees vary by assessment type and over time — see the official fee schedule on the Engineers Australia website. As for timing, processing time varies by assessment type and the volume of applications — check the current figures on the official Engineers Australia website. Note that a published service timeframe is often only the time to assign an assessor, not the time to a final outcome.

A note

The CDR is the part of an engineering file most prone to error: choosing the wrong occupation code, Career Episodes lacking enough engineering “substance”, or inadvertently duplicating content. Because the CDR directly affects the outcome, an engineering file is best reviewed by a registered migration agent (MARA) or someone experienced with CDRs before lodgement.