New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Social and Community Services) (Level 4) with strand in Social Services

Graduates of the Social Services strand will be employed in roles supporting people to reduce vulnerability and build resilience including family violence support, social justice advocacy, community development work and refugee support.

Open to mature aged applicants (20 years of age and above) due to the complex psychosocial nature of this work.  Candidates for this qualification should be aware that employees and volunteers working in the health and wellbeing sectors are required to undergo initial and ongoing checks to ensure they are a fit and proper person to provide support. 

In light of the sensitive nature of Social Services work, applicants will be required to discuss with the Programme Manager any criminal convictions that may impact upon their ability to work in this field. 

In addition, all applicants will be required to undergo a check for criminal convictions. Students are also required to have a criminal convictions check carried out before being placed in a social service agency as part of their fieldwork placement.  This information will be shared with the placement agency as the majority of social service agencies now require this information to assist them in determining whether to accept students on placement.  It is the agency’s right not to accept students and therefore some criminal convictions may seriously impede the student's ability to complete the Certificate.

English Language Requirements

Applicants, whose first language is not English, or who come from a country where the language of instruction in schools is not English, are required to provide evidence of having achieved one of the following

NCEA Level 3 with University Entrance, or

an International Baccalaureate Diploma or Cambridge A- level qualification for which the teaching and assessment was conducted in English; or

Cambridge Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA),or Trinity College London Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CertTESOL);or

Successful completion of all primary education (being the equivalent of New Zealand primary school years 1 to 8) and at least three years of secondary education (being the equivalent of three years from New Zealand secondary school years 9 to 13) at schools in either New Zealand,,Australia,Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States one of the countries listed in Rule 18.5 where the student was taught using English as the language of instruction; or

Successful completion of at least five years of secondary education (being the equivalent of New Zealand secondary school years 9 to 13) at schools in either New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States where the student was taught using English as the language of instruction; or

Successful completion of a Bachelor's Degree, Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma, Bachelor Honours degree, Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma, Masters' Degree or Doctoral Degree, the language of instruction of which must be in English and which must be from a tertiary education provider from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States or

Successful completion of one of the following internationally recognised proficiency tests listed below to the level required of the programme of study and with all scores achieved in a single test during the two years preceding the proposed date of enrolment

IELTS test - General or Academic score of 5.5 with no band score lower than 5
TOEFL Paper based test (pBT) - Score of 530 (with an essay score of 4.5 TWE)
TOEFL Internet based test (iBT) - Score of 46 (with a writing score of 14)
Cambridge English Examination - B2 First or B2First for schools with a score of 162. No less than 154 in each skill.
OET - Minimum of Grade C or 200 in all sub-tests
NZCEL - a) Expiring Level b) Current: a) Level 3 (Academic) b) Level 3 (Applied)
Pearson Test of English (Academic) - PTE (Academic) score of 42 with no band score lower than 36
Language Cert - B2 Communicator International ESOL Written (LRW) PASS with no less than 25/50 in each skill and Spoken (S) PASS
Trinity ISE - ISE II with no less than pass in any band

* New versions of some NZCEL qualifications, and in some cases new qualifications, were published on 13 June 2017. These are intended to replace pre-existing versions and qualifications, which have been given expiring status until discontinued on 31 December 2019. (a) denotes expiring (b) denotes current

To be eligible for award of the qualification the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Social and Community Services) (Level 4) with strands in Community Facilitation, Community Health Work, Mental Health and Addiction Support, and Social Services, they must have:

• Attended for not less than 80% of timetabled class hours and other scheduled learning activities relating to the New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Social and Community Services) (Level 4) with strand in Social Services programme of study; 
• Completed all theory and practical exercises as required and successfully completed alleight paper descriptors to the value of 120 credits and in accordance with the programme schedule.

Please note: students failing to attend for 80% of timetabled programme hours may forfeit zero fees entitlement.