Why Your Qualifications Matter in the Australian Skilled Visa Points Test

The qualification tiers and their points

Educational qualification points on the skilled visa points test are tiered:

• Doctorate (PhD): 20 points
• Bachelor degree (including Honours) or Masters degree: 15 points
• Diploma or trade qualification recognised by the relevant assessing authority: 10 points

Only your highest qualifying qualification counts — points are not cumulative across multiple degrees. A Masters plus a Bachelor still scores 15, not 30.

Why the skills assessment has to confirm it first

A degree certificate by itself does not earn points. The assessing authority for your nominated occupation — VETASSESS, ANMAC, TRA, ACS or the relevant body — has to issue a positive skills assessment confirming your qualification and experience genuinely match the Australian standard for that occupation, before you can claim the associated points. This is the same gate that applies to employment points, and it is why getting the assessment right early matters more than almost any other step in the process.

Some assessing authorities also apply specific rules about where the qualification was obtained — certain occupations under Schedule 6D require particular qualifications to have been completed in Australia to score points at the higher tier, while others accept an equivalent overseas qualification. Confirm the exact rule for your occupation rather than assuming your Philippine qualification is treated the same as an Australian one.

Common scenarios for Filipino applicants

A few situations come up often:

• A Philippine Bachelor degree in a relevant field, positively assessed, generally scores 15 points — the same as an equivalent Australian Bachelor degree, once the assessment confirms equivalence.
• A trade qualification (electrician, carpenter and similar) assessed through TRA generally sits at the 10-point diploma/trade tier, alongside a mandatory practical or technical component for the assessment itself.
• Multiple qualifications — for example a diploma plus a later Bachelor — only the higher one counts toward points; the earlier one may still matter for your skills assessment's overall evidence of competency.

Get the sequence right before you claim points

The practical order is: confirm your nominated occupation and its assessing authority, gather certified qualification and transcript documents, obtain the positive skills assessment, and only then build your points claim around it. Claiming qualification points without a matching positive assessment on file is one of the more common reasons an Expression of Interest gets challenged later. If you are unsure whether your specific qualification and occupation combination will assess the way you expect, book a discovery call and we'll point you to the current assessing-authority guidance for your occupation.