[KiwiHopeful]

Hello Des!

Welcome and good luck!

On the teaching front, what I've been able to gather from personal experience and talking to other NZ teachers and wannabe teachers so far is this:

1. The shortage is mostly for technology (applied and IT), math, science, and early childhood education. (Just as an FYI: That was *not* the case when I began this process--at the time, NZIS and Teach NZ were citing shortages across all secondary areas, including English).

2. New to NZ teachers are expected to cut their teeth by relief/supply (substitute) teaching. Okay for beginners, I guess, but not so much for experienced people. The overseas-trained teachers I've spoken to have seem to spend about 18 months doing this before securing regular positions.

3. NCEA is such a big deal here that it seems to trump everything else in your resume/CV.

4. There are courses for over-seas trained teachers at some of the larger universities to bring them up to speed with NZ's system. The Ed School at the University of Caterbury has one. However, the bitter part of me wants to point out that *no one* told me about this, and I only discovered it myself by accident. I would have thought that somewhere along the line, my case manager, Teach NZ, or the Teachers' Council would have pointed it out--they certainly had no trouble asking all order of things--including hundreds of dollars--from me. Unfortunately, the next course, which runs all day on Saturday for an entire term, does not start until July, and won't be offered unless some unspecified number of people sign up for it.

I don't mean to sound bitter, but I guess I am. I was the principle applicant for our PR and fully expected that since I was able to demonstrate my worth to NZIS that I'd be able to find a job to fit my skills. If someone had told me the four things above, I'd have been better able to make an informed decision.