National Examinations Council (NEC)

The National Examinations Council (NEC) was established in 1965 to oversee examinations, certification and related activities in respect to technical and vocational education and training at the sub-professional level.

NEC certifies 37 courses at Level I; 30 courses at Level II; 6 courses at Level III, and 2 courses at Pre-technician Level at secondary schools. Technical/vocational programmes provide a foundation to the world of work in the respective occupational fields. As such, the programmes are designed with a highly applied, hands-on orientation in order to prepare participants for functioning in the world of work. The academic/theoretical/technical knowledge aspects of the courses are intended to facilitate the development of practical competence, in that, they provide the theoretical/technical knowledge and the cognitive skills necessary for efficient performance in the occupational field.

Level I
Competency based assessment in areas of technical and vocational education and training. The emphasis is placed on practical performance.

Levels II & III
To satisfy the objective of preparation for the occupational field, the programmes of training are structured as full courses consisting of a selected combination of subjects, ranging in number from two for some courses to twelve for others. The great majority of courses comprises of four to seven subjects.

Technical/vocational courses, while purposely designed to prepare participants for the work environment, do succeed, to varying extents, in preparing beneficiaries for further education and training. NEC diplomas and certificates are accepted both locally and abroad as satisfying entry requirements to various programmes of further study.

Forms

Accredited Private Institutions – Candidate Entry Form
Candidates Entry Form – Full Time
Candidates Entry Form – Part Time
Deposit Voucher
External Candidate – Entry Form

Private Candidate – Entry Form
Re-Write Entry Form
Repeaters outstanding courses – entry form
Review forms
Servol Application form
Guidelines for the Introduction of NEC Programmes
Statement and Transcript Application Form

Services

The National Examinations Council is responsible for, among other things, the following:

The processing of candidate entries which are received in January of each year. This includes the allocation and issuing of candidate examination numbers; the preparation of files for every subject of every course for each group of candidates of all relevant institutions and the researching of the status of all repeat candidates for entry into said files.
The production and distribution of course time-tables, daily timetables and marking schedules for examinations.
The reproduction, packaging and distribution of the examination question papers for all subjects for all centres.
The conduct of the examination at approximately 30 centres in Trinidad and Tobago.
Overseeing the receipt of all candidate scripts and related documents; the issuing of these to marking centres; the conduct of marking exercises; the receipt of marked scripts and results from moderators and the documentation involved at all stages of these processes.
The processing, including the collating of previous year’s performance of repeat candidates, and publication of results for all courses within the maximum acceptable time period of two months.
The processing of requests for review of results.
The preparation and issuance on request of statements and transcripts in respect to examination results since the inception of NEC.
The grading of results and the processing, documentation and issuing of diplomas and certificates to all successful candidates in the examinations.
The analysis of examinations and moderators’ reports, examination centre reports and spot checkers reports and the determination and initiation of appropriate action.
The processing of claims for all functionaries. The preparation of statistical reports on examination performance according to courses, institutions and categories of candidates.

Contact Information

National Examinations Council
Ministry of Education
Level 11, Tower A,
Education Towers
#5 St. Vincent Street,
Port of Spain.
Tel: (868)622-2181 Exts. 2005 – 2013
Email: nec@gov.tt