Job Discussion Forums

[incubus509]

Dear All,

How important is it to get a Teacher's Registration Certificate prior to applying to be a teacher under the NET Scheme? Obviously having a certificate will make you a much more competitive applicant but do you know of any cases where teachers without an official Teacher's Registration Certificate? Thanks for the insight.

[Joshua2006]

If you have the certificate, send it in with your application.

If you don't have a certificate, you can't send it in with your application but you could still try applying.

[Smoog]

what do you mean by getting a Teacher reg? Do you mean in your own country or when you get to HK (i.e. getting your teaching quals assessed and recognised here)?

If the latter, it costs around $2000HK to do and is a pain in the ass, cause the assessment authority demands to see everything including your school results regardless of whether you have tertiary qualifications.
Most schools you will find don't expect you to hold a local teacher's registration: indeed not only will they be surprised that you do, if you're applying for a PNET position, they'll be surprised you have any teaching qualifications. They're not mandatory in order to be a PNET.

It is much easier, quicker and, importantly, free for the school to apply for a permit to employ you as an unregistered teacher. The EDB issue these out to anyone and their dog.
The only reason to apply for a local reg is that with the unregistered permit, you need to apply every time you change schools (which is a bit of pain due to the amount of paperwork involved), cannot teach in any International school (if that is your aim) and can't work as a teacher outside of your school (you'd also need your school's approval & would also need to change your work visa status, making it such a hassle very few NETs bother).

If it's the former, again most schools aren't expecting their PNETs to hold any teaching qualifications so it's doubtful just how much weight and value being registered back home would carry.