Education : NZQA IQA general question

[pr0sper0]

Hi all, first time poster, several-year-long dreamer of moving from Texas to NZ to teach math at the secondary level. I pulled the trigger recently by telling my principal I was going to quit at the end of this year, May 2013. The general sketch is fly to NZ this November and look for jobs like mad on a working holiday visa, then file EOI etc for a proper visa if (correction: WHEN ) I get a job offer. I'm trying to get more proactive at this early stage, and it seems to me like a good idea to get the NZQA stuff finished in the next month or two. I would appreciate anyone's informal assessment of my qualifications before I start my app in case there's anything I've been mistaken about. From my perspective I'm eminently qualified to teach all the way up through calculus, but I'm just generally wary of bureaucratic pitfalls I may not be aware of.

My qualifications/background are:

-Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering @ a major university
-Certification to teach high school in Texas gained via an alternative certification program
-Two years full-time regular teaching experience (once this one's completed in May)

Another thread on this forum implied that just having a bachelor's of some kind would qualify me to teach at the secondary level, is that accurate? I don't want to be paranoid, but I am with bureaucracy; may I go ahead and claim 2 years experience even though this last year's not quite finished? Hope this is a worthy question/post in general, I have done a lot of reading on this forum and the official government websites, and am just hoping to learn from the experience of someone who came from a similar background as me, particularly teachers who immigrated from the U.S. at the high school level. Should I expect any difficulty with the NZQA process given my qualifications and experience?

Thanks,
Michael.

[JandM]

Hello.

In order to teach in schools in NZ, you need to be registered with the NZTC. Your next step should be to look at their site, here http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/c...rseas-teachers, to make sure you cover all the bases.

And no, you can't claim two years' experience until you have actually completed them - this would just get your application thrown back for claiming points you're not entitled to. The golden rule for INZ is not to count your chickens till they're hatched, since something (e.g. in this particular case, and not wishing it on you, being hospitalized for the next six weeks, so that you don't finish out the year) could step in and mean that the event you're anticipating doesn't happen.

[pr0sper0]

Hello.

In order to teach in schools in NZ, you need to be registered with the NZTC. Your next step should be to look at their site, here http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/c...rseas-teachers, to make sure you cover all the bases.

And no, you can't claim two years' experience until you have actually completed them - this would just get your application thrown back for claiming points you're not entitled to. The golden rule for INZ is not to count your chickens till they're hatched, since something (e.g. in this particular case, and not wishing it on you, being hospitalized for the next six weeks, so that you don't finish out the year) could step in and mean that the event you're anticipating doesn't happen.

Right, that's the site I've been looking at. Thanks for your response, and the advice about the chickens . I will wait until the end of the school year to begin that process, then.

[Karen Phillips]

Hi. Another thing you could be checking if you haven't already is that your degree is on the list of qualifications exempt from assessment - appendix 3 of Operations Manual. If it, you can be making progress with getting g it assessed. Good luck! Karen