What counts as evidence

Most people arrive at RPL with more evidence than they think and less of the right kind. The gap is rarely skill. It is that nobody photographs a finished job at the time, and job records get thrown out.

Evidence that usually works

• Photos of finished work — better still, the same job at a few stages. Photos with their original capture date carry more weight, which is why the date a photo was taken matters as much as what is in it.
• Job records — job sheets, dockets, work orders, site diaries, invoices. Dull paperwork is excellent evidence because it is hard to fake and it is dated.
• Third-party reports — a supervisor, employer or client confirming what you did and how you did it. Specific beats glowing: "set out and installed wall frames on 20+ residential jobs" is worth more than "excellent worker".
• Licences and tickets — proof of the things that are formally certified.
• Payslips and employment records — these establish how long, and in what role. They rarely evidence a specific skill on their own.

Evidence that usually disappoints

• A photo with no context. A wall proves a wall exists. It does not show who built it, when, or what you decided while building it.
• A generic reference letter. If it could describe anyone, it evidences nothing.
• A resume. It is a claim, not evidence.
• Anything you cannot connect to yourself. Team photos, company brochures, a finished building you worked on somewhere.

The authenticity problem

Assessors are alert to portfolios that read as though someone else wrote them, and they are right to be. A portfolio written in polished third-person marketing language about work someone did with their hands is a red flag, not a strength.

This is why our guide records what you say in your own words and links every claim to something you said or uploaded, rather than writing a better story on your behalf. When an assessor asks you about item 14, you need to be the person who knows the answer.

Start looking now

The single most useful thing you can do before starting is to go through your phone. Most tradespeople have years of job photos sitting in their camera roll that they never thought of as evidence. Old employers can often reprint job records. Supervisors move on, so ask while you can still find them.