Your Career Guide - New Zealand

Okay, so you’ve dumped your uniform and school bag! What change do you want to make now?

Trade Focus
Are you full of common sense? Enjoy working practically with your hands?

Apprentices learn from more experienced tradespeople on-the-job so you earn while you learn. Your wages go up as you become more useful. Some off-the-job training is also done at polytechnics or private providers.

You don’t usually need a student loan. Apprenticeships are practical and qualified Kiwi trades people are globally sought after.

You may have to start with a preapprenticeship course, and you usually have to go door knocking to find an employer needing an apprentice.

Degree Focus
An undergraduate degree (Bachelor) is the highest level of study you can enter after leaving school. Degrees are offered by universities, institutes of technology or polytechnics and some private providers. Some lead directly to professions such as Law, Engineering, Podiatry, Physiotherapy.

Other degrees - Arts, Social Sciences – develop strong skills in critical thinking, analysis and writing. Students then often add professional value through postgraduate study (a further one or two year’s specialization).

Often leads to high income, allows independence in your learning and diversity in subject choices.

Need to be very organized as fewer guidelines regarding assignments, exams etcetera.

Focus of Other Study
Certificates and diplomas are other tertiary options, depending on your school grades. Reasonable Year 12 grades open up diploma study. Increasingly certificates are offered as bridging courses into diplomas and degrees – or as pre apprenticeship options.

Academic Focus
Universities offer the widest range of degree study with a major emphasis on postgraduate study and research.

Institutes of Technology are more practical in their approach and include opportunities to bridge into degrees through diplomas and certificates. Some provide off job apprenticeship training.

Private providers tend to specialize in one industry, such as Travel, Information Technology or Art. While some offer degrees, they mostly offer certificates and diplomas through supportive small group learning. Some provide off job apprenticeship training.

Wananga offer a unique Maori experience with gradual immersion into Te Reo Maori and Tikanga Maori from certificate to degree level.

Distance education. The main distance education providers are the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and Massey University. Open Polytechnic is exclusively extra-mural. Other tertiary providers, like Whitireia, also offer a few online options. Visit
http://www.whichcoursewhere.co.nz/ .

Check courses are okay through the New Zealand Qualifications Authority www.nzqa.ac.nz. It lists all registered, accredited and approved national qualifications. All quality assured courses are also listed on www.kiwiquals.govt.nz/.

Change Change Change New Zealand’s tertiary environment is going to change over the next 12 months. Already University of Auckland, Massey University and Victoria University of Wellington have set a higher entry requirement than NCEA University Entrance (or equivalent) through ranking systems that allocate points according to Excellence, Merit and Achieved passes. Other providers may follow. The government is also talking of tightening conditions around student loans.

Focus on the Forces
How about the NZ Police? Are you fit, disciplined and keen to work in a team? Do you like helping people?

Remember signing up for the Armed Forces means you agree to defend New Zealand (fight wars). But more often you’re providing support during natural disasters and participating in international peace keeping. There is a lot of interaction with people from other countries and cultures.

Tertiary Focus