# Education and Reference Letters



## peeshpie (May 8, 2011)

I am in the process of applying under FSW route and would like to know: 

1. Reference letter from past employers - do I have to provide a letter from each employer dating back 10 years or just the employers that are related to the occupation that I am submitting the application under? 

2. Number of years spent in education: do I count from aged 11 yrs (secondary education level) onwards or include years in education before that age? 

Many thanks!


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

1) Every employer going back 10 years
2) All years in education, ie from entering primary school.


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## peeshpie (May 8, 2011)

Thanks very much for clarifying this for me auld yin.


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## SharonJ (Aug 9, 2011)

peeshpie said:


> Thanks very much for clarifying this for me auld yin.


and thank you from me...This is the very reason that I joined the forum to get the answer to this question as it appears a tad vague on the forms. In reading the official application that the education "years" start from secondary school in the calculation, so clarification is good.


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## SharonJ (Aug 9, 2011)

Auld Yin, How do we provide evidence of our school years if we do not have access to all our school reports. Do letters from the schools suffice if they show the dates that we attended. The same goes with my husbands trade certificate, we have the certificate, although he completed his 4year apprenticeship in 3.5years, does that count as a 3 year course or 4.


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

It would be difficult to have all information on your schooling so provide as much as you can, concentrating on your secondary/college/trade education. for your husband's trade education i would state 4 years.


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## macmel (May 8, 2008)

Not sure if you still have your exam certs but just to add when we recently applied we had to get copies of our secondary school exam certs to prove our qualifications as over the years our original certs had been lost. It was easy enough to get hold of them from AQA or OCR, we were told that we could not apply without them, it does carry a small cost but doesn't take long to get them.


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## peeshpie (May 8, 2011)

macmel said:


> Not sure if you still have your exam certs but just to add when we recently applied we had to get copies of our secondary school exam certs to prove our qualifications as over the years our original certs had been lost. It was easy enough to get hold of them from AQA or OCR, we were told that we could not apply without them, it does carry a small cost but doesn't take long to get them.


Thanks for the advice on this - I hadn't considered including GCE and CSE certificates as it was so long ago (1984) Best to include absolutely every bit of evidence I suppose to avoid the application bouncing back


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## macmel (May 8, 2008)

I know it seems so long ago that it shouldn't matter with work experience etc but we had to provide both CSE and O Levels (we left school in 1987) to prove we had finished secondary school. When we got them through I had to amend my CV too as I didn't get exactly what I had on my CV - oops!!


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## peeshpie (May 8, 2011)

It all fades with time - thanks for your input - I have applied for A level certificates today! - £75 charged by one institution for a transcript of my nursing education!! Not even counting up the cost - as long as I have the evidence


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## SharonJ (Aug 9, 2011)

Also on this are the certificates suffice (as in completion of year11 and trade certificate) or do you need something frtom the schools and Institutions to say what years and time frame you attended


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## macmel (May 8, 2008)

In our case (provincial nomination) the certificates were sufficient as they only wanted to know we had completed 11/12 years of education. As for my husbands trade qualifications his BTec showed how long the course was luckily, as they do like to know how long a post secondary education qualification has taken.


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## SharonJ (Aug 9, 2011)

macmel said:


> In our case (provincial nomination) the certificates were sufficient as they only wanted to know we had completed 11/12 years of education. As for my husbands trade qualifications his BTec showed how long the course was luckily, as they do like to know how long a post secondary education qualification has taken.


Thanks although it is going to make things rather difficult

tell me though what is Provincial nomination I dont really understand what I have read about it


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## macmel (May 8, 2008)

We have been nominated by a county in Nova Scotia - we have made 3 visits and made contacts with locals and the county have issued us with a nomination letter which basically says they need people like us to add to their community, you don't need a job offer but once nomination has been secured and the application has been sent to the high commission you can start looking for employment and apply for a temporary work permit without needing an LMO from a potential employer. For us it was the best option as my husband had been offered a job to start in Nov 2009 in Halifax but with the recession the offer was withdrawn so it was back to the drawing board and with the skilled workers list being cut back provincial nomination seemed the best way. We went to an expo in the UK and the county representatives were so helpful and full of advice. There is no charge for their services and no charge for Nova Scotia nominee program. I would advise against immigration representatives they are very expensive and they whole process is really easy if you just chat with the right people. You do have to make a couple of visits to show you want to settle in a certain province and normally you have to settle in that province for a certain length of time. We love Nova Scotia and fully intend to settle there so we are quite happy to have that restriction.


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## sherrie1420 (Aug 2, 2010)

Hi Macmel, hubby and I are hoping to go the intracompany transfer route in Nova Scotia, failing this provincial nomination would be our next option. We would be very grateful for any information you would have on this subject. Thanks Sherrie


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## macmel (May 8, 2008)

There is an expo at Edgbaston in October where East Hants will be and that is who we have been sponsored by. Lots of people don't like expo's as they think they are full of agents waiting to rip you off (there are definitely some of those there!) but they are also full of free advice that is well worth checking out (apart from the ticket entry price we paid nothing for all their help). We went last October and without visiting the expo we probably would have given up. We had already progressed to getting a job offer and LMO/TWP etc and study permits for the kids and a date to move but then had the rug pulled from under us when the job offer was withdrawn - gutted doesn't even begin to say how we felt!! BUT we decided this is what we really wanted so took the plunge to go the expo in case we could get an alternative route for immigrating and luckily we found East Hants. I would suggest looking at the Nova Scotia Immigration site for some advice as well, there are a few counties within Nova Scotia who will provide nomination but I think most do stipulate that you have to make at least 2/3 visits to the province before they will consider nominating anyone - if you time it right the flights are below £300 so it is not too expensive. It is a long drawn out process and costs quite a bit but will hopefully will be worth it in the end we are at the start of the process now our application is with CIC London and it is just a waiting game until we hear from them. If you have any other questions pm me at [email protected]


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## SharonJ (Aug 9, 2011)

In relation to the letters from Employers. Is there a time frame that they are no lnger valid. If I was to have them written up today would they still be valid for submission if it takes me 6mths to collate all the evidence, or would I be worthwhile trying to wait until a little closer to when we were going to apply


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## macmel (May 8, 2008)

With the Community Identfied Stream we didn't need to supply employer reference letters. We did manage to get some together but didn't need to send them in the end. Sorry I am not sure how long they would be valid for.


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