Category Archives: Getting into Tertiary and workforce

Getting Started – Getting into University and Polytech

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University or Polytech
If your teens have an idea what and where they want to study, get them to start making enquiries with the institution, especially the admissions officer and with the professors of the subject they hope to major in. Let them all know you will be showing up in x number of years wanting to enrol and you will not have any traditional paper qualifications. Ask them to suggest appropriate areas of study for you to prepare yourself.Or wait until age 20: you don’t need any entrance qualifications then, just the enrolment fees. Some courses are very restrictive: optometry, medicine, law, etc. One can therefore decide to “finish off” by doing a year or two at a high school to get the NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement).Or enrol at a polytech for certain courses that have no prerequisites at all. Once completing such a course, it can be a stepping-stone to further higher education.At present one needs to be a pushy parent to get things to happen, but things will become more straightforward as more homeschoolers seek out higher education. As far as the writer has been able to ascertain, all homeschooled New Zealanders who have sought admission to NZ universities or polytechs have gained admission one way or another.

Qualifications are Overrated
by Craig Smith
Home educated individuals (home schoolers) have found that higher school certificates such as School Cert, 6th Form Cert, Bursary (Now NCEA) are not really necessary for getting a good job.A NZ Herald article by Bronwyn Sell of 24 April 2000, said: “More and more employers were acknowledging the need to educate sensitive, creative and socially minded citizens. A survey by Colmar Brunton Research found that employers rated a number of items ahead of qualifications.The list, in descending order of importance is:Reliability
Motivation
Work as part of a team
Presentation
Confidence
Employment history
Work-related skills
Experience in industry
Previous training
and finally, Qualifications.“Seek creative ways to introduce yourself, showing the strengths you want the employer to see. The most effective way always has been and always will be: work your own network of contacts: friends, neighbours and relations and other home educators who are employers and seek jobs through them.The bottom line is, one does not need paper qualifications to get into tertiary institutions or to land a good job. Paper school leaving qualifications are entirely overrated.

Qualifications are Overrated

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by Craig Smith, Home Education Foundation

Home educated individuals (home schoolers) have found that higher school certificates such as School Cert, 6th Form Cert, Bursary are not really necessary for getting into tertiary institutions or a good job. We generally go for the Provisional Enrolment option at universities. This is a discretionary call by the Admissions Officer. The student presents a portfolio of the kind of work done, examples of essays written, work and character references, etc. The student markets him or her self to the Admissions Officer via the interview. A favourable interview, an impressive portfolio, and the means to pay the fees seem to do the job.

Rather than hope that their exam scores, among thousands of others, will market them to the tertiary institution of their choice, home educated students take the task into their own hands and market themselves directly, face to face, with the real gatekeepers of these institutions: the admissions officers.

A NZ Herald article by Bronwyn Sell of 24 April 2000, said: “More and more employers were acknowledging the need to educate sensitive, creative and socially minded citizens. A survey by Colmar Brunton Research found that employers rated a number of items ahead of qualifications.

The list, in descending order of importance is:

Reliability
Motivation
Work as part of a team
Presentation
Confidence
Employment history
Work-related skills
Experience in industry
Previous training
and finally, Qualifications.”

And of course we all know that a young person’s first job and often the best jobs have always been acquired through one’s own network of contacts: the disgusting “old boys network” you hear tell about.

The bottom line is, one does not need paper qualifications to get into tertiary institutions or to land a good job. Paper school leaving qualifications are entirely overrated.