Once employers have submitted their list of preferred NETP and NESP applicants and the number of positions they wish to recruit, the ACE system conducts a match process, matching graduates selected by employers to one of the graduate’s most preferred employers.
ACE will now match your application against the list of employers that you would like to work for and a list of applicants that the employers would like to employ. ACE will then run the algorithm match, matching candidates ranked above the line with their best possible option. Be aware that this is a BLIND match process. Employers will not know where you have ranked them; all they will know is that they are one of possibly 3 employer preferences. So if you rank Te Whatu Ora - Te Toka Tumai Auckland 3rd for example, they would have no idea whether or not they are your 1st, 2nd or 3rd preference. We do this so that this gives you the best opportunity at being matched to your first preferred employer.
When ACE runs the matching process, the algorithm is only matching an applicant to an employer, not to a practice setting and not to a specific job. Once completed, employers will know which applicants they’ve been matched to and they can then begin to allocate those applicants to the specific vacancies they have available.
The ACE Match operates based on the following principles:
- The employer ranking of applicants takes highest priority. This way, the employer’s highest ranked applicants have the best chance of being matched to a position.
- The applicant’s employer preference takes second priority. This way, if an employer prefers an applicant, the algorithm favours the applicant’s choice of employer from 1st to 2nd to 3rd.
- The algorithm will only match applicants that an employer has ranked for NESP positions to NESP positions and applicants ranked for NETP positions to NETP positions. This way, only applicants that the employers preferred for NESP can be matched to NESP positions. Please note applicants who rank Mental Health and Addictions as their 1st choice practice setting have the best chance of being considered for NESP positions.
- Each applicant can only be matched to 1 employer.
Once the match algorithm is complete, the match results are then sent to the individual employers who will send out job offers and subsequently move forward with on-boarding and induction. Those graduates not successfully matched in the ACE match will go into a Talent Pool for later consideration for additional places as they arise. Detailed information relating to the ACE Nursing Talent Pool can be found here.
Full application details will be included in the ACE Nursing Website once applications open however, applicants should be aware that:
- They should only prefer employers that they are happy to work in. If an applicant is matched to one of these employers, this is the single job offer they will receive. If the applicant rejects this offer it may be extremely difficult to find a graduate position within an employer as they will be excluded from that current ACE intake and therefore cannot be offered a position from the ACE Talent Pool.
- To have the best chance of securing a position, applicants should preference more than one employer. Note applicants’ details can only be seen by the employers that they prefer (up to three) prior to the ACE match and these employers cannot see in which order an applicant preferenced them.
- Applicants should start to think seriously about which specialty or specialties they favour. As part of the ACE application process, they will be required to choose at least one from a list that will include a wide variety of specialties to choose from. Note, it is also important that applicants consider the areas employer indicate they have vacancies. Each employer is encouraged to make available to applicants in advance the areas they intend to recruit to for each intake. This information can be found on individual employer websites, which you can link to from our Employer Information page.
- The match process does not take into account applicant practice setting preferences, only employer preferences. Once applicants have been matched to an employer, the employer will then do its utmost to match them to one of their preferred practice setting specialities, provided they have vacancies in that area. Please be aware ACE cannot guarantee that applicants will initially be placed into one of their preferred practice setting areas.
- When interviewing with an employer it is a good idea to discuss their available specialties and support for their new Graduate Nurses as this will allow applicants to make a more informed decision regarding which employer(s) they would most like to apply to. Once applications close, applicants can change their preferred order of employers right up to a time immediately after employer interviews have been completed. Please note that after applications close applicants can only update their employer preferences by emailing nursing@acenz.net.nz but are able to update their contact details themselves by logging into their ACE Profile.
- To confirm the date by which applicants need to have finalised their employer preference order please see the 2024 Intake Dates section.