Hi folks,

Has anyone had experience of getting their school/college and professional qualifications validated and translated into Spanish, please?

I need to get my O and A levels (yes, I'm THAT old!) and my nursing qualification validated, so that potential employers here know what level of education and professional standard I have attained.

The people at the employment office told me that I need to do it through the consulate (presumably the British one, and presumably in Madrid?? )
I will look at the website, but in the meantime I just wondered whether anyone else has been through this process?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can give me,
Sam.

I work in an FE college and I have taken an overseas student into our International Office because he needed to get an English translation of his qualifications. He was back within 5-10 minutes clutching a printout with all the details on. Apparently there's a website to go on? I'll see if I can find out for you tomorrow.

Oh wow!
That would be very helpful.
Thanks very much

Don't know if this will help, but this is the reply I have just received from our International Office ...

We subscribe to NARIC ( National Academic Recognition Centre for the United Kingdom) as we do frequently need to get an English equivalent for a foreign qualification.

There presumably is an equivalent for Spain. Do you know anyone who works in education ... is there anyone on here who does and could help?

If I can be of any further help just let me know.

Sharon

Thank you for that.

Yes, I know a few people who work in education, so I'll see what I can find out.
The British Embassy website wasn't any help at all

Luckily I'm not in a desperate hurry to get this done - but it would be nice to know how to go about it.
Once I find out, I'll post on here again, in case it helps someone else in the future.

Thanks again,
Sam.

My OH needed to do this a few years ago and I can't recall who we had to apply to but I will have a look around all the paperwork we have archived (there's loads so it may take me a little time, coz I collect everything I can get hands on LOL!) and hopefully get back to you in a couple of days.

My wife has had a nightmare with this over the years, in an attempt to get in to teaching children in schools. In the end, she's done a 3 year teaching degree at the local university outside Madrid as the least frustrating option. Educated through O level, A level and BSc level in the UK, she chased details of qualifications as much as she could, but some jobsworth required details of subject splits at O level from nearly 30 years ago! Then told that a standard 3-yr UK degree was insufficient to get on to a post-grad teacher training course, some bright spark suggested studying the extra in Spain to bring her degree up to scratch. Except that she did chemistry and hasn't touched it since. Ludicrous idea. And all this despite contacts of friends on the inside, etc. (we like to do things the Spanish way as much as possible ).

In the end, A levels were sufficient to get her on to a teaching degree, which, finally, she will be finishing this year.

Good luck and be prepared for a lot of frustration.

Several years ago my wife went through the procedure of convalidating her teaching and translating qualifications.

It was a difficult and expensive exercise as the authorities were not satisfied just with translations of her university degrees but wanted full details of her entire university syllabus over five years and her post graduate course in education.

Unfortunately the university had not kept a record of the syllabus but luckily the course director was still in the same job. My wife contacted him and he told her to compose the syllabus herself, send it to him and he would sign and validate it with the university's seal.

This ran to several thousand words and had to be translated, along with her degree certificates, by a bilingual notary public and endorsed by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office with the Apostille of the Hague Convention.

Armed with all of this paperwork we then went to the Ministry of Education and Science in Madrid on three separate occasions to present the paperwork on one visit, sign numerous documents on another and finally to collect the documentation. They said they would send it by post but having gone through all of this we didn't want to entrust it to the Spanish postal service which was even more chaotic and unreliable then than it is now.

It was all worth it in the end. My wife is now the proud holder of Folisofía y Letras as well as her BAs.

The procedure my well have been simplified over the years but somehow I doubt it. If you are going to do this you will need patience, persistence and a shedload of money. Good luck.

Many thanks to buenavista, coralsoft and Beachcomber.

I was going to reply to each of you individually, but actually by the time I got to the end of Beachcomber's post, I was starting to question my sanity about pursuing this any further!

Thank you all for taking the trouble to post about your experiences.

I spent ages doing a Google search last night, and found lots of very confusing information
I got so bogged down with all the various links from one part of a website to another, that I couldn't remember where I'd been to, where I was coming from or where I was going!!
I did find the Spanish ministery of education and science website www.mec.es was quite helpful (in case anyone else is looking for somewhere to start on this topic!)

coralsoft and Beachcomber - I really do admire your wives' tenacity! Credit to them for battling on with all the beauracracy AND taking on additional study

I'm not sure I'm that desperate to get back into nursing at my previous level, based on those experiences???

buenavista - please don't worry about looking out all your paperwork. I think I might give it a miss for the time being.

However, many thanks to all of you who have replied; it's much appreciated.

Sam.

Sam, follow the Mayor round till he has an accident, then be the first response.
I am sure he will sort it out for you. ;-)

What a good idea!! The "It's not what you know, it's who you know" theory applies in this country just like any other. Well thought, jdr

That's a good idea jdr............but unfortunately I'm "not that kind of nurse!!"
I'm a nurse for people with Learning Disabilities.

By the way, we're very progressive in our little village.............we've got a Mayoress!!