Educational points and your education

Hello,

First off, what a great forum. I had been looking around for detailed information of visas and the such and found the lack of information out there very frustrating to say the least. Congratulations for the unbiased, mature approach to information sharing.
I have a question that I could not find an answer to with the search feature. I am a New Zealander that has moved to the UK on a Working Holiday visa, I have had some troubles securing a professional role due to my visa and would now like to get a HSMP to remove this issue. In hindsight I was stupid to not get one in the first place but that's life.
I have done the points calculator and see that the education area is my down fall. I left University before finishing my degrees. I have been working in the IT/Telco area for over 5 years and have managed staff and taken of project management and service delivery management. So i believe my professional skills are covered for an under 28 year old.

Instead of finishing Uni, can I, and does the HSMP accept, UK accredited courses such as PRINCE2 and ITIL as education points? I am seriously looking into taking these courses over here and think it best if I take a course that will also increase my chances at a HSMP. So basically is university education the only educational option as far as HSMP is concerned?

Thanks for your time, let me know if I have missed anything.

Mathew

matblack wrote:Instead of finishing Uni, can I, and does the HSMP accept, UK accredited courses such as PRINCE2 and ITIL as education points? I am seriously looking into taking these courses over here and think it best if I take a course that will also increase my chances at a HSMP. So basically is university education the only educational option as far as HSMP is concerned?

Pretty much, as I understand it. Formal education must be exactly that. Check the case worker guidance notes at http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/docume ... rguidance/ for more info and to be sure...

Thanks for the link inso. So unless I finish my degree I'm screwed? The website basically said that there are courses that could equate to degree status, but there was no way to check which ones, and it states that normally such courses should "take 3 years to complete" to show there complexity.

I'm not a happy camper sadly. Would be great if I could easily see what I can and can't do.

matblack wrote:Thanks for the link inso. So unless I finish my degree I'm screwed? The website basically said that there are courses that could equate to degree status, but there was no way to check which ones, and it states that normally such courses should "take 3 years to complete" to show there complexity.

I'm not a happy camper sadly. Would be great if I could easily see what I can and can't do.

Sorry to hear, mate; I was in a similar position a few years ago: I wanted to get my NZ immigration ready and done for the day I got my degree in order to just pack up and leave. The immigration officials were very adamant that only completed degrees would be considered -- none of my past three years' academic records, other diplomas or anything.

I'd imagine you can get an authorative answer from the HSMP office themselves though?

inso wrote: I'd imagine you can get an authorative answer from the HSMP office themselves though?

Really? You don't have a link I could have do you?
You never now, I could be incredibly lucky and they do except business type courses... or I could find out that the 5 years at uni are enough to have a degree, I was just too silly to ask for the piece of paper.

btw - you want to immigrate to nz and they stopped you? thats very un-kiwi.

Really? You don't have a link I could have do you?

From their website http://www.workingintheuk.gov.uk/workin ... /hsmp.html

If you have any general queries about the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, please contact the Work Permits (UK) Customer Contact Centre:

By telephone: 0114 207 4074
By fax: 0114 207 3776
By e-mail: wpcustomers@ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

By post:

Customer Contact Centre
Work Permits (UK)
PO BOX 3468
Sheffield
S3 8WA

btw - you want to immigrate to nz and they stopped you? thats very un-kiwi.

Heh. As I mentioned, it was purely due to not having completed my degree yet. My circumstances changed somewhat before finishing it, so ultimately I never followed up on it; I'm sure I wouldn't have problems doing it today

Thanks again inso. I have written an email basically asking if UK accredited business courses can count towrds educaiton. I will post the reply I get for future information.

And here is the lovely and vague response:

Dear Customer

Thank you for your email.

Qualifications have to be to the recognised British standard of Bachelors, Masters or PhD (as validated by the National Academic Recognition Information Centre (NARIC) current database) to be awarded the respective points for each level of qualification.
Vocational and professional qualifications can also score points in this area if satisfactory independent evidence is produced to show that the qualification is equivalent to an applicable level British academic qualification. This will be validated, where possible, by reference to the NARIC current database. It is the responsibility of the applicant to demonstrate that the qualification equates to a UK academic qualification. However, NARIC are not always able to verify professional qualifications, so if you already have evidence from NARIC that the qualification equates to an appropriate British level academic qualification please submit it with your application.

I hope this is helpful,

xxxxxxxx
Customer Contact Advisor
Work Permits UK
Home Office
P.O Box 3468
Sheffield
S3 8WA

matblack wrote:...as validated by the National Academic Recognition Information Centre (NARIC) current database...

Yeah, I'm thinking that only NARIC will be able to assist you with that query, since they simply defer to the NARIC accreditation...

Hi inso,

Yea it is an interesting position, especially since NARIC check overseas qualification to see if they are up to UK standards. But I want to do a UK qualification and find out if that is up to HSMP standards.

Will I have to fork out to do this? I'm guessing there is no easy way to do this.

Thanks again.

matblack wrote:Will I have to fork out to do this? I'm guessing there is no easy way to do this.

That's a difficult one; I'm guessing NARIC won't really give you useful information until you shell out the 30-odd quid for it. Remember that the HO is looking for (at least) a Bachelor-level equivalency -- that usually implies at least 3 years of full-time study -- but NARIC is their designated (?) authority to actually accredit this equivalency whenever the question isn't straight-forward...