do employers ever demand GCSE certificates

I have a son who will finish at university this year. Either he, or I, have lost his original GCSE exam certificates (although he has his A-level certificates.) Has anybody heard of a university graduate being asked by a potential employer etc. to provide original GCSE certificates, or would they usually confine their demand to A-level certificates?

It is possible to get a document from the exam boards confirming grades, but you pay a separate fee for each of the various boards that you did your exams with, so in my son's case it would come to £85 - obviously we wouldn't cough up until/unless an employer asked for these certificates, but it would put my mind at rest if lots of people said 'no, ridiculous, we've never heard of a uni graduate being asked for GCSE certificates!'

When I applied to work here (at a university) they asked for copies of *all* exam certificate, including my GCSEs.

It's not common but some employers are stricter than others...

When I applied to work here (at a university) they asked for copies of *all* exam certificate, including my GCSEs.

It's not common but some employers are stricter than others...

Once you graduate from university employers are really only interested in seeing your degree certificate, and really couldn't care less about A levels and GCSE's.

To be honest I have never even been asked to produce my degree certificates. The fact that they are listed on my resume seems to be enough for many employers who take you at your word.

Damn, unpleasant truth rather than easy comfort. Did you have to supply them *prior* to the employer making you the offer, or only afterwards, when you'd accepted the position?

I had the offer but it was a condition of the offer (ie they said I could have the job provided I could prove I had the qualifications I'd claimed)

That's not so bad .. paying £85 to take up a job could be considered acceptable, as opposed to having to pay £85 only to be rejected.

It's a bit of a swizz on the part of the exam boards, though - you don't get charged that much to replace your passport or your driving license. AQA won't even issue replacement certificates, their website is unbelievably snooty about it - they will only issue replacements if you can prove through a police or insurance report that they were stolen or burnt up etc. Otherwise the most they'll do for you is a sort of official letter stating what grades you got. To top it off, some of the old exam boards (NEAB, SEG etc.) were subsumed into AQA southern branch and some into AQA northern branch, so if you have both NEAB and SEG exams, you have to apply to both northern and southern AQA - EACH of which hits you for £30. (Edexcel charge £26, and thank god there's only one of them.)

Have you considered contacting your sons old school - it's possible they will be willing to verify his grades (or they may still have copies of the original results) and I doubt they would charge. It just depends on the school and the type of records they hold and how long they hold them for....