Hello,

I was wondering if somebody could help me in regards to what the equivalent of the Ontario Secondary School Diploma is to the GCSE's.

I completely my OSSD in 2003, and I recently just moved to England with my wife. I have dual citizenship as my mom was born here, and I lived here from '89-'90

Now all these jobs I am looking at, are asking about GCSE's, and I haven't a clue what they would be...

Can anybody help, please?

Thank you

Can't give you a definite / official answer, but I would imagine that if you passed your secondary school exams in Canada, that would definitely be enough to meet the GCSE requirement for a job.

Most employers put these down to ensure that you have a basic level of education in the english language (reading and writing), and maths, although there are also a host of other subjects too. The average number taken is between 7-9.

If you dont know already, GCSE's are taken at age 16, and stand for General Certificate of Secondary Education.

There are websites/ companies around that can "translate" your qualifications for you into British terms. This topic has been discussed before, so you can use the search function above to find some recommended company names if you wanted to pursue this. I think there is also some information on this in the Wiki too.

When it converts the other way around, those UK kids that turn up in Canada with GCSE's are usually told they are equivalent to somewhere between Gr 10 and 11 and are usually placed in Grade 11.

A Gr 12 graduation is probably somewhere between the UK AS and A levels.

You can definitely say you have completed the equivalent of UK high school - but as the above poster suggested, perhaps get the diploma translated - I suspect it will be something equivalent to the UK 'sixth forms' and depending on how high your grades were, would be 'A' levels.

If you are writing up a CV, spell out that you have an Ontario High School Graduation certificate obtained at 18 yrs of age. British employers would have no idea that kids have to stay at school here till that age

Just contact NARIC in the U.K 0845 6000 991 or www.tda.gov.uk and they will ask you to send a copy of any qualifications you may have (non U.K) they will then let you know what is the equivalent to U.K Standards

good luck