New Zealand Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Level 3) (Healthcare Assistance)

Entry Requirements

To enrol in this programme you need to have NCEA Level 1, or equivalent.

You must be able to access a minimum of 100 hours of paid or unpaid employment as a health care assistant or support worker. To demonstrate this you will provide a Workplace Agreement signed by your employer and have a workplace supervisor who can verify your work. 

20 years old or over

If you are 20 years of age or over and do not hold the minimum entry requirements you will be eligible to be enrolled where your previous educational, work or life experience indicates you have a reasonable likelihood of success.

If you are studying this programme you are only able to enrol in one course at a time.

English language requirements

International students must have an IELTS (Academic or General) score of 5.0 with no band score lower than 5.0, or equivalent.

Domestic learners for whom English or Māori is not their first language must also have an IELTS (Academic or General) score of 5.0 with no band score lower than 5.0, or equivalent.

Learn more about English language entry requirements

Work experience requirements

To study this programme you must be able to access a minimum of 100 hours of paid or unpaid employment as a health care or support worker in a relevant context. This could include areas such as:

• aged or acute care
• community support
• home-based support
• respite care
• mobile services

If you are working as a volunteer worker in a health and wellbeing setting, please contact us to check that you will be eligible to study this programme.

The workplace learning is a compulsory part of all of the courses, as the activities give you context for your assessment

To confirm your work experience placement, you must have a workplace supervisor who can oversee and verify your work. You will be asked to nominate your employer during the online enrolment application process, and they will be emailed their form automatically to complete. They will nominate your verifier and the verifier will be emailed their form automatically to complete.

If you want to see the content of these automatic workplace and verifier forms, you can see them here:

Employer workplace agreement form

Verifier agreement form

International learners and domestic learners living overseas

You can study this programme part-time if you are an international student living in New Zealand. If you live in New Zealand, you will need to be in paid employment with a valid work permit.

You cannot study this programme if you're an international learner living overseas, or a New Zealand citizen living overseas.

Computer and internet requirements

This programme is delivered online. To complete this programme you will need access to a laptop or desktop computer, reliable broadband internet connection and a data plan able to support online learning such as streaming of videos (including YouTube), downloading content, and writing and submitting online assessments. If you are unsure if your current computer or internet access allows you to complete your online learning with us, please contact us before applying to enrol.

Learn more about our online learning and study tools.