Rhian0

Hi, I am looking for some advice regarding courses that I can do to qualify to be an Early Childhood Educator. I have a B.Ed hons and am a qualified primary school teacher ages 3-11 yrs specialising in 3-7 yrs, working in the UK. However I would like to emergrate to NZ and am wanting to do an equilvilant open university course (in the UK) for 0-3yrs that will be recognised by the NZQA and enable me to gain perminant residency. ANY ADVICE? Thanks Rhian

j19fmm

Hi Rhian, sorry to burst your bubble but NZ do not as yet recognise our UK Early Years Diploma. I looked into this earlier this year and spoke to a very helpful guy at NZEducation in Wellington. Only way to do it at moment is to study in NZ, but would incur international student fees without proper visa.
Any particular reason you don't fancy staying with Primary age? Or just fancy a change? Good luck

Rhian0

Hi, thanks for replying to my call for help! One of the main reasons that I am looking into becming an Early Childhood Educator is to bump up our points on our EOI and enter NZ without havin to secure a job offer. As have been told that Primary jobs are hard to come by in NZ?. I have also been inspired by a guest speaker called Wendy Lee at a conference I attended in Huddersfield last week. She was talking about the exciting developments in Early years education in NZ and I thought "I want some of that!"

j19fmm

Don't blame you!! I was excited by the amount of ECE jobs advertised in NZ but really they are in same position as UK in HAVING to have a trained Early Years teacher on site in the future. Try contacting some of the independent centres by email, they can be very helpful and might be able to offer you a job then training. There are a lot of Primary jobs advertised on www.edgazette.govt.nz/vavancy.php and have you read Snifferbaileys post about going out there and selling himself to schools?If I can find the email from NZ Min Ed I'll try and PM it to you.