NCEA and employers

Employers will soon need to know all about NCEA. NZQA is about to launch a campaign to make sure they will have a good understanding of the new qualification before school leavers start applying for jobs.

Communications Manager Bill Lennox says the campaign is a two-stage process. "Very few students will leave school before mid-2003 with NCEA as their highest qualification. So we are aiming at raising general employer awareness and confidence by the end of 2002. By mid-2003 we aim to get information to every employer to help them understand how to interpret NCEA results."

This is not as difficult as it sounds. In industries where unit standards are used employers are already familiar with the notion of credits and levels.

"Our surveys show that where employers have had any contact with NCEA, they understand the system more readily than others," says Bill Lennox. "We will be explaining that NCEA is part of the Framework. So employers can look for the same specific skills and knowledge they expect in industry qualifications."

"A common concern is that employers will miss School Certificate, that School Certificate results were useful and well understood. Employers have been asking for more detailed profiles of school leavers for more than 20 years. They want to know whether a person is good orally, how well they can write, calculate, think through research topics. School Certificate's single mark for a whole course didn't give them that. They used it as a crude sorting mark."

NZQA is working with Business New Zealand, industry training organisations and others to identify how best to get the message to employers. As well as direct mail, plans include the use of trade journals and conferences, Chamber of Commerce and Rotary networks, and the internet.

Later in 2002, NZQA's web site will have a new look. Web site co-ordinator Shona Brown says the site's new "portals" will give all users, including employers, more immediate access to the information they need. "A click on the Employer button will lead employers to a straightforward explanation of NCEA and an on-screen guide to reading NCEA results notices."

"Like all Framework results, NCEA results will be on the web site. We expect that many employers will sit down in front of a screen with school leavers and look at the results," says Shona Brown.

Bill Lennox says the huge amount of information about student achievements can look daunting at first, but this year's parents are already coming to appreciate the detail. "We are working with tertiary providers to help them to use NCEA results for entry and selection. We are confident that everyone who has to deal with NCEA school leavers' results will get the advice they need and come to grips with the system very quickly."