RIMPA Global assists Australian Bureau of Statistics with OSCA Update

The ABS has announced an upcoming public consultation on the 2027 update to the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA), including Records or Information Manager (223935).

As the peak body for records and information management, RIMPA will be actively advocating through this consultation to ensure the occupation description accurately reflects contemporary professional practice.

Why this matters?

Records and information management work has evolved alongside:

• automation and distributed processing
• heightened privacy, security and assurance expectations
• national policy focus on trusted, ethical and secure data ecosystems, reinforced by the Australian Government’s National Quantum Strategy

These shifts do not change the occupation but they do make long-standing information governance, professional judgement and assurance capabilities more visible and strategically significant.

RIMPA Global’s advocacy position is focused and measured:

• clearer recognition of digital and distributed information governance
• explicit acknowledgement of advisory and risk-based professional judgement
• recognition of participation in standards and governance frameworks
• no new occupation proposed
• no change to Skill Level 1
• no shift toward IT or data science roles

If OSCA does not keep pace with practice:

• modern IM roles risk being under-recognised
• governance and assurance work becomes invisible in workforce data
• the profession’s contribution to national digital capability is understated

RIMPA Global will engage formally with the ABS as part of this consultation and will support members to do the same.

This is a critical opportunity to ensure the profession is accurately represented - now and into the future.