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?

There are well established processes in education authorities world wide to address these issues.

@Marblessolveeverything
I am as I said drifting off into wild hypotheticals! But I doubt there are processes in Gaza that would be very helpful atm.
Countries that have been decimated I suspect would face difficulties.
But you are right in that most countries would be fine.

@letsgoooo there are international processes in place.

So if a person can't access information i. a war other countries step in and facilitate access. There are some challenges with some smaller African countries but the majority of countries have held very comprehensive education data systems.

These processes and policies have meant Ukrainian people can carry on their studies in other countries and engage in work where specific qualifications are required.

DH has all of his. I have my degree certificate and nothing before that. Chucked the rest ages ago. I don't work in teaching where I'd need to drive I have English and Maths GCSEs so the degree certificate supersedes the rest of them and they're just clutter.

Yep. Had to have proof of every qualification that I had listed on my CV for job which is in a 250 fts company.

Weirdly, I do have my O level certificates from 1983, but I don’t have my A level certificates from 1985. The one time I was asked to take in my certificates was for the first day at a job at a university. I just brought in the O level certificates and didn’t mention the A level ones. Somebody took the certificates off me on the first day and went off and photocopied them and then brought them back to me, never even mentioning the missing A level certificates. It never came up again.

I was on a call about an apprenticeship programme a few weeks ago and they mentioned GCSE certificates. I think I didn't get any, I had the bits of paper saying what I got but don't remember actual certificates, and I must have thrown those out years ago. I didn't need to show them to get into university and my exam boards are no more.

What surprised me was my English degree certificate wouldn't do it had to be a GCSE one. Surely a degree in English trumps a GCSE in English?!

It's so bizarre.

I don't think they are clutter. Clearly a lot of employers don't either.

I must have been told to keep mine safe back in 1975, and I still have mine even though no-one has asked to see them.

I moved house 7 times between the age of 18 and 26.
I don't know where mine are, and I've never been asked for them.
I'm not sure what I would do if they were needed.
I passed my GCSEs in 2008, but the certificates are lost all the same.

I'm worried about the time coming when I have to buy some, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Good luck!

I did an apprenticeship a few years ago, and those who couldn't provide GCSE certs had to do maths and English tests under exam conditions. It wasn't GCSE, though I assume they got some sort of certificate.

I also asked the question about degrees - you can't usually do a degree in the UK without having English and Maths, so a degree implies you had them, or equivalents (Access course, foreign qualifications, etc,) before starting. The administrator agreed it was a bit daft, but nonetheless, you had to show your GCSE certificates or do the tests.

They are to me. Had to show GCSE certs once in September 1995, same year I'd taken them. Never shown A level certs as university admission confirmed via UCAS in normal way.

I moved house 7 times between the age of 18 and 26.
I don't know where mine are, and I've never been asked for them.

I think I moved once more between those ages - but was warned by school exam officer that I could be asked for them decades later and to keep them safe.

So they are in a folder with NI card - copy of marriage certificate. DH keeps all his exam certificates together in one folder as I bought him one to do so.

We've told our kids the same but they don't get that impression from their educational institutions.

Come think of it I don’t think I ever got physical certificates for GCSE. This was in 2000. I got a printout showing all my results but not individual certificates. I’ve kept the printout out for 24 years and I would have kept the certificates had I been given them.

Usually you would have either had a presentation evening in November, or would have been told to collect them from school after that time.

I had left the school by then and the school was in another part of the country so I was never going to go and collect them. Might explain why I don't have them though.

Oh sugar. Kept Ds1's. Haven't needed mine yet. If I did I'd struggle to find out all the different boards I sat 35 years ago! and pay them individually to get certificates. But I suppose I could if I absolutely had to.

I have only GCSEs and two level two NVQs. All of my certificates were lost in a flood nearly twenty years ago. I've never been asked for any of them in any job. I wouldn't even know where to begin getting them replaced. I couldn't tell you who any of the examining bodies were. My working career is worth far more than those certificates anyway.

Usually you would have either had a presentation evening in November, or would have been told to collect them from school after that time.

DC secondary is awful around communication - they hold onto all the certificates till January/Feb after last exam - so next year after done - but if you don't have a child at the school left your just supposed to hear via word of mouth - as e-mail addressee are gone by then and they don't send letters nor do they announce it prior to the kids leaving ie on this date you can pick up.

It's no better for A-level either - it's just such an odd system and dire communication - would be easy not to bother or to forget.

College they go onto for A-level just sends them in the post to home address.

I can only remember getting first taken early and them being handed out as soon as exam officer got them to us in envelope with card backing after an assembly and told to keep safe. The rest - same school no memory of how I got the certificates.

I don’t recall ever having certificates, or even a note from the school.

fairly sure I phoned the school on results day and they told me over the phone.

however my dc has applied for a non uk university and it’s been a pain in the arse. They want original certs, scans aren’t good enough. So we’ve had to go back to school and college and get the actual Certificates.

what has surprised me is there’s no central electronic record, it is purely the certificates. Why aren’t all the results held on an official database that employers/uni’s etc anywhere in the world can log into to verify? I can do it with my driving licence, I generated a code sent to my employer/dc’s driving instructor and they logged in to check.

so dc is flying half way across the world to start uni in September without an “official” place until they physically see the certificates.

Depends on the school surely?

mine never had any sort of presentation evening. They just didn’t do anything like that, for anything. You could have won a Nobel prize or the olympics and they’d have been “oh that’s nice” and moved on. They had some weird ethos where nobody’s achievements were greater than anyone else’s so they celebrated nothing.

dc’s school don’t do a presentation evening either. When dc went to pick up their certs they had to sign for them, and only 3 other students had done so. They’re always issuing reminders to come and pick them up because they only hold them for 7 years- who knows what happens after that.

Nope definitely didn’t have one of those!

Last time I was at the school was to collect my results. Perhaps different for different schools.

I think we had to fill in an address label and later received an A4 envelope with them. Cardboard back to the envelope to stiffen it.

I think in the future there will be an electronic record but they would have a hard time retrofitting it.

My certificates have my name on and my school but no other identifier (maybe date of birth) because they were taken before NI cards (and mine was actually a card, not even a credit card sized thing) were issued there was no way to identify the person.

In my school year there were 7 Catherines (with various spellings) with different surnames and a couple of Kathleens. So theoretically they could have swapped certificates if eg Catherine Smith passed English and Maths but Catherine Jones didn't, many women change their surname when they marry so it wouldn't be obvious.

I think on the paper slip / certificate thing. We got the paper slip on results day and then we were given the certificates in an envelope at prize giving. If you didn't attend another person could collect them instead.

I collected a certificate for my brother when I was in VI form.

But presumably most of the people you recruit have later qualifications like a degree?

Remember the Record of Achievements folder?

We were told that every time you go to an interview or assessment session, you bring your RoA.

Not one interviewer etc has ever asked where is my RoA.

The only use it has now is I know where my certificates are.