Exam certificates

[imnotthatkindofmum]

Long story short.

Getting a job in a field I am not experienced in but the job description fits my experience of over 15 years.

I do not have a degree. And I left school 30 years ago.

For the new job which they want me to start asap I have been asked for gcse and a level certificates. I do not have these and they have said I have to have them or I can't start. If they are anywhere they're in my parents loft. My parents are in their 80s and live a 2 hr drive away.....and they might not actually even be there. I was also divorced 20 years and a lot of stuff is just gone forever.

I can get certificates but it's going to cost £50 per qualification, take over 20 days and I don't even know what exam boards I did.

The HR contact is aghast that I've never had to show my certificates to anyone. Obviously if it related to the job I could understand it.

So my questions are should I still have my certificates? Does everyone else still have their certificates after 30 years? Have you been asked for (unrelated) certificates to do a job you have experience in?

AIBU that they are BU?

I’ve been a Civil Servant since 1986 and haven’t needed certicates for employment purposes since then (dating back as far as 1984)
But I have undertaken further training etc and have needed certificates as eligibility to get into some of this training. Without them due to the number of years since receiving them

I’ve on occasion completed basic English/Maths tests as an alternative route to show my standard for the course or I’ve used the old dot matrix printed exams summary that was issued before the certificates were produced, and has been sat in a drawer opened once a decade etc.

Last year I needed proof of qualifications again and went into the attic, finding my old personal folder of basic work course certificates (health and safety etc) and inside that I discovered my college certificate folder as I had continued some college courses on part time day release from work (as a good little young civil servant using my further education time entitlement) and among this college folder was my previous full time college certificates and also my original school certificates.

I now have them all photographed or scanned, filed away in a folder and also as email attachments sent to myself

I'd be shocked - as DH and I know where all ours in special folders -are and I can't think of one job that didn't want to see them - However recently did a course - cheapest way was with council scheme -one of the other women decided to take up some of the other courses maths and English GCSE because apparently last 20+ years she'd just been lying about having them - she skipped out of doing any GCSE - none of the jobs she has in last 20+ years had asked for proof.

I've got all mine from 1979 onwards to be honest.

I kept mine safe until I was in my late 40s, at which point they got put into a supposedly secure storage unit (for just 3 months when we did an extension) - and the whole storage unit burnt to the ground (thanks, Shurguard Croydon).

Thought I was being OTT buying DD1 a fireproof storage box for certificates and any important papers.

I might have to take some photos as wouldn't remember the boards I sat with - kids have that easier it's all WJEC. It is daft though as DH and I both have degrees and post graduate qualifications and still have had to show GCSE certificates especially for English and maths.

Gcse, a level, degree and teaching quals every interview.

Teachers have to have gcse English and maths

YANBU - I recently changed careers to teaching and having not needed certificates for the past 25 years now needed to produce them for teaching course. i had managed to get a degree and post grad qualifications plus working in a job requiring both skills plus more but still needed to show I had Maths and English GCSE from 30 years ago(!) Pretty pointless as when I did my GCSE I didn't need to know all about phonics and grammar like they do now so completely meaningless.

Couldn't find the certificates and my parents couldn't find them either and old school don't keep records back that far, so I had to order from exam board. Of course all the exam boards who did my GCSEs have been amalgamated into the new exam boards, so I just had to go from memory about which board mine might have been with and fortunately guessed right. Cost about £50 - you just get a proof of GCSEs rather than a fancy certificate for the wall but job done!

Yes, my employer asked for mine twice for some reason.

Once when I started, and another time 4 years after I'd been in another role, but I think that was incompetence on HR's part!

I also had to teach some of our staff, including those in managerial roles, level 2 Functional Skills maths as they had to have a grade C or equivalent in GCSE maths, because they either didn't get it the first time or had lost their certificate.

No, I have never had to show them in the 30+ years since I got them. At this point I couldn’t even tell you what subjects I did! TBH now I think about it, I’ve never even need asked for proof of my degrees.

I have never been asked in 40 years. I have had to show evidence of postgraduate qualifications though.

A dbs check is to make sure that you do not have any criminal convictions.

It doesn't check whether you have the qualifications to actually teach. The school need to check that you are qualifed as a teacher (if they are going to actually pay you as one).

Nope never. I have to prove my professional qualification but it’s on a googleable public register, so I’ve never shown anyone paper proof of that either.

We had to show our degree certs from 75&85 when adopting. Not because you need a degree to adopt but to show we were being honest about our claims.

I understand your role isn't teaching, btw.

But surely it's reasonable that employers want to check that the dentist/doctor/nurse/plumber or whatever actually HAS got some qualification or passed the training course they are claiming to have done?

I'd have thought whatever role you were applying for - if you have put down the exams/qualifications you have on your application form, then you expect to have to produce evidence of this, whatever job you are doing.

@Hatty65 it's not a teaching role! People keep assuming it is but it's not!!!

Oh sorry just saw your next post!

They are not BU.

They can ask for any proof of quals that they want.

Do you really want to pass up this job first the sake of £100?

@imnotthatkindofmum 😁

That's ok. I knew from your first post that it wasn't a teaching role because of your surprise. It it had been teaching you'd be well used to dragging out your O level certificates from the early 1980s...😂

I have no intentions of passing up the job. I've already said that I'm going to get them. This was a discussion about whether it was that important and if people still have their certificates after 30 years if not directly relevant to the job. Obviously a lot of people think it is and still have them. There's nothing wrong with questioning procedures and trying to fully understand them. That's one of the reasons I'm good at what I do.

No idea where they are and never needed them either. I (was) in management.

I have all my original certificates except one of my degree certificates as it was sent to a relatives address. Oddly I have a photocopy of it.

However when my university qualifications have ever needed to be checked, employers have checked with the university directly. This is because degree certificates are easy to forge.

No one has ever checked my Maths and/or English GCSEs due to my A levels than now my degrees.

I have all my certs from the 1980s onwards. I reordered them into a new folder recently, as I managed to lose a sparkly new DBS cert within 2 weeks of receiving it - now also found and filed. I have usually been asked for my degree certificates for jobs, but I have also been asked for maths and English GCSEs, even though I wouldn't have been allowed to do my degrees without them. I was most recently asked for maths & English GCSEs about 4 years ago, for a work-based qualification. (I'm now 52.)

I was surprised in my new job, (I'm a month in,) they didn't ask for any certificates - except my first aider at work one, which is voluntary anyway. There were a couple of people sacked from my last job for claiming qualifications they didn't have - IT, not teaching.

I have never been asked for mine (left school in 89, graduated in 94, so long time ago) and genuinely have no clue where they'd be. Possibly my parents' attic or worse, my attic (bat and mouse shit hell). I must be very naive, although I never had high status jobs before becoming self employed 20 years ago. I've asked a few friends if they had to produce theirs over the years and the consensus is "not been asked for 20 years, if at all". Clearly we've all been lucky as almost none of us could place them...

I will make sure my dds keep theirs super carefully!

When one company I was working for wanted to make people redundant they double checked everyone's qualifications by phoning up the universities they attended.

The joke was everyone they put in the first redundancy pool they found had told the truth about their background but those who they weren't going to were "hard to trace".

So first round they had to pay everyone off and give us a lot. Second round they didn't. I knew there was a second round as a colleague they didn't get rid off in the first round phoned to check he was getting a fair amount.

I was contacted by a school friend a few years ago asking if I could check my certificates and let her know the exam boards for our GCSE's (from the 90's). She had the same problem and had to pay to get new ones. I have kept mine safe for this very reason. The first thing we did with my sons was scan them all so we have soft copies as well.

I had to dig deep into my parents filing when I applied for a job at 54! I was quite pleased to find I'd done my English Lang O level early 😀