Moving to New Zealand to teach?

[thirdcultureteacher]

Hello,

I am a middle leader and primary school teacher in a BSO (British School Overseas) + COBIS accredited school.

I have an iPGCE, NPQSL (Senior Leadership), will finish my M.Ed (Inclusive Education) in 2025 and will soon receive QTS via the assessment-only route.

I have started looking into moving to NZ to teach. However, I am worried that I will not get through because of my South American passport, even though I have always lived and studied in English-speaking countries and have practically no ties to SA other than my passport. I was wondering if anyone here is of a similar background and/or knows anyone who's gotten through the NZ accreditation + teaching license + job hunting + visa process for NZ and would be able to share their experience and tips.

Thanks :)

[shadowjack]

I would write to the licensing authority and present your case. Then you will be told, you need to submit your application etc, for consideration. Moral of story - apply and see what happens...

Start here... https://www.education.govt.nz/news/over ... cruitment/

[PsyGuy]

Theres two questions here:

First, the process is pretty transparent, there is an English language requirement you will have to meet. Assuming (and its a big assumption) that the combination of your iPGCE and M.Ed together have a cohesive sequence of courses that meets the NZ requirements is coin flip probabilities. My reflex is youre probably over qualified in SPED/SEN/LD for general primary and youre probably short on the general and broad topics for primary. NZ requires a credential but their mutual recognition system is not credential focused (its more like the system in CAN), such that the QTS is a requirement but it alone isnt sufficient to meet the NZ credentialing requirements. The NPQSL isnt worth anything. If you do everything though and meet all the requirements, being from the LCSA isnt a barrier and in the edu scheme wont bar you from eligibility for a visa.

Second, and the question thats the real issue. Youre not what they are looking for. While you dont say where you did your bachelors/first degree or where your primary or secondary edu was from Im assuming you dont fit the look they are looking for which might be less of an impact if this was a high needs teaching field but theres no huge need for primary and your SPED/SEN/LD isnt grounded in NZ regulations, practices, etc. They are going to take a look at your photo and passport and bin it because its going to be a sizable stack of applications.

Thats really the secret, if you have a DS (or even IS) in NZ wanting to hire you, they can make it happen in terms of credentials, authorizations, permits, visas, etc. for whoever you are. There just isnt really enough desperation in NZ for your type of applicant on a big pile of primary applicants and your alternative (SPED/SEN/LD) doesnt have the NZ specific background. Hiring you means having someone hold your hand through all the production tasking for at least a year and thats just to get you to noob level. All of that is highly dependent on someone actually putting you on the short list and getting the interview time to go over it with someone in a position to hire you. Thats the hoping on one foot trying to shoot an arrow through a hoop a km away probability. Youd have to know someone who could get you an 'in' to make the probability something to set your career on.

[shadowjack]

In contrast to PG, nothing ventured, nothing gained. NZ is in the same boat as Canada, the US, and other growing countries with not enough teachers. So they are looking to fill the need via immigration.


Apply away - no guarantees, but from what I saw, they are not looking for specific countries - but for well-qualified teaching immigrants.

[PsyGuy]

Where I disagree with @SJ is the range in how those edus are represented across content fields. There arent enough edus is accurate if one of those content fields has insufficient demand, but the need isnt the same across content fields CAN/US/UK/AUS certainly do have edu shortages but not so much for primary HRTs.

If you meet the requirements the LW will get the credential but there is a cost associated with it and its not trivial. Getting a job is a whole other problem, and its not one that the LW is going to be particularly sought after.