The last three years of secondary education often end up being a challenging time for a lot of students in New Zealand. To get their NCEA certificates, they need to choose the right courses, hone a variety of different skills and often pass exams at the end of each year.
In return, NCEA has plenty of advantages for students. Depending on the subjects the student has followed, their NCEA score can serve them to apply for entry to university, take up professional training courses or look for jobs in plenty of areas.
What's more, NCEA qualifications can be useful not only in New Zealand but also abroad. Even though different countries usually have different educational systems, it is not uncommon that they recognise one another's diplomas. As New Zealand has agreements with many other states, NCEA will be accepted as a valid secondary education certificate in quite a few places.
Find out more about other countries where you can study with NCEA.
Whether you want to work or study abroad, NCEA will help you fulfil your projects. But to know what opportunities you can have, let's find out what exactly it is considered equivalent to in different countries. This may motivate you to work harder to get NCEA credits and improve your grades. Are you ready?
What is NCEA about in New Zealand?
Before we look in detail at what qualifications NCEA equates to in other countries, let's quickly review how it works in New Zealand. First of all, the abbreviation NCEA stands for National Certificate of Education Achievement and it is the main secondary education diploma in New Zealand.
NCEA consists of three levels that students complete at high school with each level general taking one year, so when they finish year 13, they are supposed to obtain NCEA level 3.
To validate each level, New Zealand students choose different courses and gain credits as they complete them. Each school course at that stage includes different standards having to be met, so students can know what exact skills they should focus on and what knowledge they should acquire to get as many credits as possible.
Upon achieving standards, students can also be given one of the three grades: achieved, merit or excellent. Getting the second or the third grade can be beneficial to a student because it will mean that they reached a good level of knowledge in the subject. Once they finish school and apply for university courses, each grade they have got will count.
When a student successfully completes NCEA level 3 and if they meet literacy, numeracy criteria, they are given the right of University Entrance and can decide where they will study next.
This is where the choice of courses they had made gets particularly important because different school courses allow students to enrol in different university careers later on. Additionally, the very University Entrance permission depends on the completion of certain courses determined by the government.
As NCEA is a pretty demanding certificate and means a high standard of education, numerous countries accept it as a valid diploma on their soil. Let's find out more about those countries.
Recognition of foreign diplomas in the world
As we live in a closely interconnected world, it has been absolutely normal for students to spend time studying abroad. Some may choose to complete only a part of their education in a foreign university, others do an entire undergraduate or graduate program.
Whatever period of time you spend taking courses outside New Zealand, it will be a valuable experience. You will discover a new way of life and thinking, meet new people and may even pick up a new language. All these skills are highly appreciated by employers and will, of course, serve you all throughout your life.
Let's see how NCEA is converted to ATAR to study in Australia.
Given those considerations, it was important for countries to create opportunities for their students to study abroad and this implies, first of all, the recognition of foreign school and university qualifications.
To achieve this, several international conventions have been created, including the Lisbon Recognition Convention and the Tokyo Convention, of which New Zealand is part. Thanks to these agreements, your NCEA score will be accepted by over 60 nations around the world and give you access to university courses.
On top of that, New Zealand has signed numerous bilateral agreements with other countries to recognise each other's qualifications. These can make students' lives even easier and open up many more educational opportunities for them.
You can also enter a US university with NCEA.
How does the recognition of qualifications work?
As we have seen, when a student completes NCEA standards in New Zealand, they get a grade. However, grades and scales can be different from one education system to another. So, how can an NCEA certificate be understood by a foreign university?
In reality, despite all the differences that exist between school systems in different countries, in most cases, they have more or less the same requirements for students and teach more or less the same subjects.
For example, most school curricula in the world include such subjects, as mathematics, science, languages, history, art and so on. This means that if a student has successfully completed secondary education in one country, they are likely to possess more or less the same amount of knowledge as school graduates from other countries.
As a result, in many cases, the NCEA certificate is equated to the local secondary studies certificate. That gives New Zealanders more or less the same rights as domestic students in many countries, including university studies.
However, a problem remains, which is how to compare a New Zealander's grade in a subject with a local person's grade. In some cases, a simple conversion of the results can be enough and the foreign student gets new grades according to the relevant scale.
However, the conversion of a grade in a subject is not always precise and the result can be unfair for certain students. As a result, if there is competition among students to enter a university, the institution may use additional tests or other means of selection to determine the best candidates.
To conclude, whether your grades are converted or not, as you revise for standards and get credits, you can acquire a lot of skills which will be helpful both to enter university and study there afterwards. This is why students should try to understand each course as deeply as possible. And if they are not satisfied with their grade or level of understanding, they can always get in touch with a private tutor who will help them advance.
NCEA is considered equivalent to A-levels in the UK and can serve to enter top universities.
Improve your NCEA score with a personal tutor
NCEA standards can vary a lot from one course to another and require a variety of different skills from a student. Some of them can be acquired through revision alone, for others, additional help may be necessary. Whatever is the subject you are struggling with, the best way to improve your level quickly is to take a personal course with a private tutor.
Private tutors in New Zealand are often contacted by students looking to prepare for NCEA standards and improve their grades. As a result, they end up knowing the system quite well and find the best methods to help students.
When you take a private course with a tutor, you can focus on a particular subject and study the topics that you need most. You will be able to ask questions whenever you run into a problem and your tutor will tailor their explanations to your learning style.
Looking for a private tutor is a serious business because, for your courses to work, you will need someone who masters perfectly the subject and whom you feel comfortable with at the same time. The best tool that can help you find such a tutor is Superprof.
On our website, students can view the profiles of thousands of tutors in different subjects, get information about their specialisation, experience and methods and read comments from other students to learn more.
Once they have come across a profile that looks good, they can contact the tutor directly via chat and set up the first lesson (often for free) to get to know each other better.
Finding a qualified tutor has become really easy with Superprof, so you will have no excuse not to validate your NCEA credits with the best grades and achieve great results in your university studies afterwards.
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