chippy-steve

Hello,
Don't want to get anyone's hopes up, but after reading BEVS post, I have just spoken to someone at the NZIS regarding the amendment to the SMC category and the exemption from assessment by the NZQA for trades with certain qualifications on their list.
NVQ level 3 is shown on the list and I was told that no NZQA assessment is now needed.
I hope this is true, because it would be good to cut out the NZQA, especially after reading some of the posts on here.
BEVS, if you are reading this, does this all sound right to you?

Steve.

BEVS

Yes it does.

NZIS will now accept the NVQ3 for your carpentry trade as far as I can see .
My small niggling concern , as I stated in another post, is NZIS use of the word 'apprenticeship'.

chippy-steve

Hi BEVS,
thanks for your reply, I told the lady I spoke to at NZIS that I was unable to serve an apprenticeship as there were none available in 1980, and she said that my work experience would be seen as some kind of indenture.
I hope she didn't misunderstand my question, but I did ask her twice and she confirmed that that's how they would view it.
Let's hope this doesn't lead to some wild goose chase!

Steve.

BEVS

Ah I would suggest that she is correct with that, as it makes perfect sense. You will have done very similar to the NZ apprentices here.
You will have worked for a company, on the tools, within the trade, whilst also doing your NVQ work and assessments.
Should match just fine by my way of thinking.

samiam2009

These new changes will be good for most of the people but for me it looks like it is going to take 5 points off. I have a masters degree in mechanical engineering from US and before it changes it was allocated 55 points. Now it is 50 points. If i want to have 55 points i will have NZQA to assess my qualification, so just another expense. I have 135 points now, so i am not going to bother getting my qualifications assessed.

chippy-steve

sorry to hear that samiam,
you always assume that amendments are good for everyone, it's a bit unfair that it should now cost you to be assessed for something that was perfectly acceptable before.

Lizaberry

Hi Steve

We chatted about this a few nights ago on your other post ... You may recall that you and my OH are in a similar situation except that my OH did complete a 4 year apprenticeship in 1979-83 though not through an awarding body and does have nearly 30 years experience in his trade. With the changes to the assessment of quals in the SMC, and in light of your call to NZIS, do you think you will now go ahead and do the NVQ3? Did you ask whether they would accept this? We have contemplated it but then decided that because we don't want to be in NZ until next year - June/July 2010, we will focus more on securing a job offer to get the extra points so at least the process will be much quicker anyway. It's a bit of a bummer we can't do anything to move our process forward here and now, but leaving it until the end of the year before chasing job opportunities is probably the best way for us to go.

If you do your NVQ, do you have any idea how long it will take or how much it will cost?

Hope to hear back soon, LB

chippy-steve

Hi Lizaberry,
Yes I am going to do my NVQ, it is likely that the government will fund this as I don't have any previous qualifications. Normally about £1200. it's done on assessment and evidential proof, i.e photos of me at work and drawings of relevant work signed by my current employers. It's a few hoops to jump through, but I do have enough experience to get the NVQ, as I'm sure your OH does. It may be a route worth following if it saves you money, but if you have the job offer, I'm sure you would get some kind of priority anyway.
I spoke to NZIS in NZ, and the lady told me that even though my qualification is recent, the fact that I have 29 years experience means that they will accept my qualification, providing I can prove my experience.
Hope this helps.

Steve.

Lizaberry

Ideal! Will give it some more thought, but as I said, with a family of 6, I would rather we go out to NZ with a job. We don't want to be there til next summer so there is no immediate rush, and now that I know that the process would be much quicker with a job offer, I feel much happier. I would love it if we could add 50 points to our EOI for a qualification but it still wouldn't get us to NZ any quicker because we want to see out our children's next academic year first.

Good luck and hope it all works out for you. Keep us posted. LB