Industry experience for approved persons

Approved person applicants are required to have at least 5 years industry experience (within Australia) in the manufacture, maintenance and modification of vehicles. Your industry experience must be obtained after completing your trade qualification or university degree/diploma relevant to the modification codes you are applying for. Your industry experience must be a period equal to 5 years within the last 10 years. Evidence of industry experience must be provided with your application and must be verifiable. Verifiable evidence may include one of more of the following:

• employer reference letter(s).
• for self-employed applicants, statements of relevant experience and supporting documentation.

Employer reference letters

You can provide reference letter(s) from current and previous employers to verify your industry experience within Australia. The employer reference letter(s) must state the following:

• evidence that you have at least 5 years industry experience obtained after completing your trade qualification or university degree/diploma within the last 10 years in the manufacture, maintenance and modification of vehicles
  Note: where applying for both light and heavy vehicle modification codes, you must demonstrate industry experience in both light and heavy vehicle categories
• length of your employment
• your role description(s)
• the work you carried out
• the author of the letter is required to sign, date and provide contact details so the content can be verified.

Self-employed applicants – statement of industry experience

In some instances, you may be self-employed in Australia over a period of time and this may be considered as part of your industry experience obtained after completing your trade qualification or university degree/diploma. In these instances, you may be unable to provide employer reference letter(s) to demonstrate you have five years’ experience in the last ten years in Australia. If this applies to you, you are required to provide with your application a statement that provides the following information:

• the specific length of time you were self-employed in Australia
• outline your industry experience in the manufacture, maintenance and modification of vehicles
• role description(s)
• must be signed and dated.
  Note: where you are applying for both light and heavy vehicle modification codes, you must demonstrate industry experience in both light and heavy vehicle categories.

Your statement alone does not demonstrate industry experience. If you provide a statement, you must also provide evidence you carried out the work in Australia as detailed in your statement. Evidence may include tax invoices that provide:

• work you conducted on the vehicle
• you completed the work
• date you carried out the work
• details of the vehicle registration number or vehicle identification number (VIN) chassis or engine number of the vehicle you worked on.

If you provide invoices as evidence, you must provide sufficient invoices to verify you have at least 5 years relevant industry experience obtained after completing your trade qualification or university degree/diploma. For example, you can provide at least 3 invoices for each year over a 5-10 year period (if applying for both heavy and light vehicle modifications codes, verifiable invoices will be required for both light and heavy vehicle category codes).

Other evidence to support your statement may include, for example, statutory declarations or references on company letterhead, from persons who can verify your industry experience obtained after completing your trade qualification or university degree/diploma. The reference or statutory declaration must declare:

• occupation of the declarant (the person making the statutory declaration or reference)
• declarant’s relationship to you
• qualifications and experience of the declarant
• if the declarant is an approved person, their approved person accreditation number
• work carried out by you
• time period the work was carried out by you
• the declarant has witnessed or examined your industry experience in the manufacture, maintenance and modification of vehicles
• anything else the declarant considers or believes is relevant.

Verifying industry experience

Any document you provide in support of your application needs to be verifiable. We require sufficient verifiable evidence to establish that you have the required industry experience obtained after completing your trade qualification. If you do not have the required industry experience, or we cannot verify your industry experience, your approved person application may be refused.