We are New Zealand's government funded specialist provider of laboratory education. Our programmes range from beginner to postgraduate. And few of our participants pay any tuition. In fact, we lend required materials (and even pay the courier fees both ways). There are ways we might be able to assist people who are currently or previously home schooled.
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This page has three sections. You can click on the title to jump to that section:
BEFORE NEAR THE END OF HIGH SCHOOL
We are a tertiary educator, so we do not have any programmes for people until they approach the end of high school. However, we are glad to assist where we can. When possible, we will lend or give things like small amounts of glassware or pH meters. We are glad to have video sessions to try to answer questions for home educators or the students themselves (a video session with an educator and the student together is often best). We like people and we like laboratory related topics, so we will help if we can. Please contact us with requests.
We have three Level 4 programmes that might be helpful while finishing secondary schooling. The entry requirement for each of the three is NCEA Level 2 or equivalent. Please do not let the lack of NCEA Level 2 worry you. We take the "or equivalent" very seriously and will look at what attributes the applicant has. Our touchstone for all admissions is Will this applicant benefit from this programme? Our policies prohibit us from having participants under 16 years old, even in the rare case that they have the skills to be ready for the programme. We also offer these programmes to Year 13 students that are not home schooled. However, the hands on components can be especially useful for home schooled people since hands-on science can be hard to access. Also, since all of our educators have extensive laboratory experience, and you will be spending time with them in one-on-one video sessions, you will be spending time with true experts. The programmes:
- General Laboratory Safety (Micro-credential) Programme (10 credits)
- Solution Calculations and Preparation (Micro-credential)Programme (30 credits)
- Mass and Volume Dispensing Proficiency (Micro-credential) Programme (30 credits)
The General Laboratory Safety (Micro-credential) Programme has no hands-on work. Between video lessons and a nice, short book we lend, participants get the information and then apply what they learn to scenarios. High school students who have done this have done well, but find the application to scenarios a kind of thinking they need to get used to.
The Solution Calculations and Preparation (Micro-credential)Programme includes things like calculations, but also involves a substantial practical component, for which we lend the needed equipment. RWE is a world leader at teaching and assessing professional laboratory skills remotely. This programme does not require maths like calculus, but if maths makes you nauseous, this programme is probably not for you.
The Mass and Volume Dispensing Proficiency (Micro-credential) Programme is the most hands-on of the three programmes. There is a little background information to be learned, but it is mostly a heap of learning and practice to get really good at hands on laboratory skills such as pipetting, micro-pipetting, weighing samples and the like. For this programme, we lend our "Big Black Box" with heaps of equipment and a laptop. You will be using a system we developed to allow us to use telemetry to know how accurately you are doing the work. We are world leaders in this sort of teaching and assessment. This programme might be good for someone who likes hands on learning and is willing to practice until they get really good at something (it does take some patience). This is true whether you are excellent at "book" science, or not. In fact, heaps of the people who work in laboratories are not excellent at "book" science.
We would not consider our programmes a substitute for general science education; our programmes are very laboratory focused. However, they may be a nice addition to general science education.
Please click on any programme you are interested in. If it still looks like a "maybe" after reviewing that information, you can go ahead and follow the application information on those pages. We will give you access to a short video lesson about the programme (to get more information). If you apply, you will have a video conversation with one of our educators, so you can get your questions answered.
If you are interested in working in a testing or research laboratory our programmes can be an efficient way to get into employment. We then have programmes to support your career development through more advanced undergraduate and, eventually, postgraduate work. And many participants pay nothing.
One concern people who were home schooled sometimes have is that their schooling is not readily recognised by tertiary educators, since it is not in the shape they expect. The entry requirement for our beginner programmes is NCEA Level 2 or equivalent. Please do not let the lack of NCEA Level 2 worry you. We take the "or equivalent" very seriously and will look at what attributes the applicant has. Our touchstone for all admissions is Will this applicant benefit from this programme? The flexible, individualised and person-to-person nature of our programmes tend to fit with what many people who were home schooled are used to.