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Qualifications and registration

Kiwi qualified teachers returning from overseas

For New Zealand qualified school and early childhood teachers returning, if you have been teaching while away, you’ll need to have these things sorted before teaching again in New Zealand:

Confirmation of your registration status
Police clearance from your overseas country where you were last teaching. (It’s much easier to get police clearance before returning to NZ. If you apply for it from NZ, you may experience considerable delays.)
NZQA assessment if you’ve studied extra qualifications overseas
For pay purposes, official school letter detailing teaching experience including starting and finishing dates, whether it was full time and continuous, or stating the exact number of days if your teaching was not continuous.

If you are a New Zealand qualified teacher who hasn’t been teaching while overseas, you will need to have these things sorted before teaching again in New Zealand:

Registration status**
For pay purposes, recognition of relevant work while overseas

**Once you have been out of teaching for more than three years you will not be able to renew your practising certificate as you will not meet the requirement of teaching two of the previous five years. This means you will need to apply for subject to confirmation registration.

Returning to teaching from within New Zealand

If you are a primary or secondary teacher and have been out of the classroom for some time, you may need retraining to bring yourself up-to-date with curriculum developments and other changes.

Retraining courses for school teachers are offered through a range of providers. Contact your nearest primary or secondary teacher education provider to discuss programmes they have planned.

The Minister of Education has decided to cease funding for the retraining of primary and secondary teachers for 2010 as the current fiscal environment has resulted in a consistent reduction to the number of teacher vacancies. There is no longer the need to continue funding this initiative. We envisage that providers may start charging students directly for retraining courses.

You may find it helpful to refer to the Ministry of Education website www.minedu.govt.nz for further information. You could also visit Te Kete Ipurangi (TKI) – The Online Learning Centre. TKI is a bilingual portal and web community which provides quality-assured educational material for teachers, school managers, and the wider education community. It is an initiative of the Ministry of Education. The website is http://www.tki.org.nz/e/tki/

The TeachNZ website also contains helpful advice, including information about the Ministry of Education preferred recruitment agencies http://www.teachnz.govt.nz/recruitment. Their services are free to teachers.).

Your registration status very much depends upon how long you’ve been out of the workforce. If you have been away from teaching for more than three years, you will need to apply for subject to confirmation registration. Check your status with the NZ Teachers Council.