February 2021
The Australia Pacific Training Coalition (APTC) is intended to promote labour mobility, but few of its graduates have migrated to Australia for work. APTC’s labour mobility efforts have recently focused on semi-skilled jobs in Australia under the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS), so far with little success. What has been overlooked are the opportunities for APTC graduates with trade qualifications, about half of its graduate stock, to obtain skilled work in Australia under the existing Temporary Skill Shortage (TSS) visa (subclass 482). The APTC should be re-oriented to expand Pacific participation, currently almost absent, in the TSS visa category.
Curtain, R. & Howes, S. 2021, ‘Helping APTC trades graduates to migrate to Australia under the TSS’, Policy Brief No. 20, Development Policy Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Canberra.
