Going back to uni for the second time???......

jem16

Crap_with_money.com wrote: »

A few of my friends have already done the PGC/DE courses in the last few years, and it's seeing how stressed out they were, and how much of their lives it seemed to consume, that's making me adamant I'll try and avoid working throughout the course if I can avoid it!

If you can avoid working I would certainly try to. When you are on placement you will find you are constantly involved in either preparation or assessing what you have already done. It is not the type of job you can walk into at 9am and walk out of at 3pm despite what some may think.

What do you intend to teach afterwards?

I wish you well in this. I have been teaching for over 30 years now and would leave tomorrow if I could. It's not the same job I signed up to I'm afraid. I also see all our probationers with no jobs at the end of their probationary year - only one in our school in the last 4 years with a permanent job and that was in Argyle & Bute.

Crap_with_money.com

tr3mor wrote: »

I don't know what it's like in Scotland but down here there are loads of bursaries for doing a PGCE.

I was considering doing maths and I'd get a £9k bursary and a £5k golden hello when I started. Plus any loans on top.

It's different in Scotland. We have a big surplus of newbie teachers, so there isn't such big incentives attached to the year spent at uni. On the flipside, it takes 2 years to become fully qualified, and the second year is a paid probationary year (around £20.5K). Overall you do make more money during training in Scotland, but with the way it's structured there's still a year unpaid where you have to rely purely on a student loan. And obviously the reason you get such high bursaries etc in England is because there are a surplus of jobs rather than teachers, so you probably have a better chance of actually getting a permanent job immediately on graduating! Where north of the border it's probably likely to take a few years!

xx

Crap_with_money.com

jem16 wrote: »

If you can avoid working I would certainly try to. When you are on placement you will find you are constantly involved in either preparation or assessing what you have already done. It is not the type of job you can walk into at 9am and walk out of at 3pm despite what some may think.

What do you intend to teach afterwards?

I wish you well in this. I have been teaching for over 30 years now and would leave tomorrow if I could. It's not the same job I signed up to I'm afraid. I also see all our probationers with no jobs at the end of their probationary year - only one in our school in the last 4 years with a permanent job and that was in Argyle & Bute.

Yeah I'll certainly try as best I can to avoid having to work!

I'm hoping to become a Biology teacher. I know the job situation is tough, and it'll probably take me a few years to get something permanent, but it's something I really want to do, and I've been working towards it for the last 4 years. Some have suggested on another forum (TES), that any prospective student teachers should wait it out for another 5 years or so before applying in the hope the job situation improves. I figure that it's best for me personally to do it now though. Since I'm still living at home with my mum paying minimal rent, and have no mortgage or kids to contend with - which obviously may not be the case in 5 years time.

It'll still be difficult to go back to student life for a year - but not as hard as it might be at another point if I had more commitments to consider.

tr3mor

Crap_with_money.com wrote: »

It's different in Scotland. We have a big surplus of newbie teachers, so there isn't such big incentives attached to the year spent at uni. On the flipside, it takes 2 years to become fully qualified, and the second year is a paid probationary year (around £20.5K). Overall you do make more money during training in Scotland, but with the way it's structured there's still a year unpaid where you have to rely purely on a student loan. And obviously the reason you get such high bursaries etc in England is because there are a surplus of jobs rather than teachers, so you probably have a better chance of actually getting a permanent job immediately on graduating! Where north of the border it's probably likely to take a few years!

xx

Ah right. Well, an easy answer then...

Come study down here!

Fire_Fox

Check the terms and conditions of your bank loan - how much will you pay if you continue making payments as you are? Will this be more or less than the amount in your signature? If you can pay it off early you should probably focus on this. It's likely the loan interest rate is higher than you will get on your savings (you will pay tax on the accrued interest, unless you get an ISA).

Once you are totally debt free you will be in a stronger position to get the best deal with a student bank account (free overdraft), or an interest-free period credit card (may come in handy if the holiday is sooner rather than later).

If you don't work during the PGCE year you will be entitled to a rebate of some of the tax you will pay between April and September of that year. Not much maybe, but something. Do you really need to use the car for work? You will be being taxed on your personal use. It may be cheaper to use public transport.

There is no reason for you not to have some income over the summer before you start your probationary year. Either do any job you can find (bar work/ supermarket tills/ cleaning) or sign on for unemployment benefit. So that means your £4400 loan needs to tide you over for 10 months = £440 a month.

If you have never saved money before, you need to sit down and work out what you spend your salary on. If it's sandwiches at lunchtime, start making your own. If it's magazines, join the library or ask for a subscription to your two favourites for Xmas. If it's impulse clothes, leave your debit cards at home and just carry loose change. If it's in Boots, start using pound and other bargain shops.

Good luck!

Crap_with_money.com

Well...... I spent AAAAAAGGGGGGEEEESSSS typing out a very lengthy and considered response to your very kind suggestions firefox - but it took me so long - my MSE log in timed out on me!

Does that happen to anyone else? It seems to happen to me every third post or so - drives me bloomin' mad!!!! :mad:

I'll be back when I've another 10 mins to spare - my studies just won't wait!

xx

littlepinkstars44

if you need advice about SAAS pm me, i'm in scotland too, and on my 3rd year of my student loan

Crap_with_money.com

Previously, I spent my money (and some of the banks!) on all of the above. That's how I managed to get myself into debt (to the tune of approx £20k). For the last 1.5 years I've drastically altered the way I manage my money, and have been throwing every spare penny at my debt. So altering my lifestyle in order to get some savings together is not really what I need to work on, my problem is more figuring out the best way of actually saving my money – since that's something that as yet I've no experience of.


Either working for 6 weeks (hadn't thought if as wouldn't have thought I'd get a job for such a short period – but it's worth a try, even if it's only temping) or signing on (again something I'd not thought, I've never done it before and just wouldn't occur to me) is a great idea. It definitely makes things a lot easier if I'm only trying to fund 10 months rather than 12. So thanks for that! :money:


Claiming the tax back is another great idea – again it's not something I'd thought of, and as you say it probably won't be loads, but every little helps!! I'll look into that nearer the time!! :money:


As for the loan, if it runs it's course in total, I'll pay £8968.12. So far I've paid £2657.28, so added with my signature, means if I settled now (theoretically, since I don't have the funds to do it!) I would pay a total of £7975.33, so yes that would save me £992.79 in the long-term. Obviously that's a lot of money, but the problem being, that I don't think I'll be able to save enough to clear the balance of the loan before going to uni? I'm not sure how to figure out what the settlement value is likely to be come August next year? (maths was never my strongest point!). I figure, that I have £600 a month in what I think of as my “disposable” income. Based on my basic salary alone, If I save a minimum of £350 per month from now 'til August, that will obviously give me a total of £2950 (this includes the £500ish I should have clear at the end of this month from my commission to start me off), and if I save a maximum of £500 per month (as suggested by astrocytic kitten, which will only leave me £100 a month from now 'til then to live on, which I'm not altogether sure I can do – but I'm definitely up for the challenge), then that will give me a total of £3500. Obviously the £1500 to fund my bro's wedding in July, still has to come off all of that! :rolleyes:


If I get a part-time job, along with any commission I earn between now and then, I should be able to add a good wee bit to that – but since neither are set in stone, I don't want to factor them into my calculations just yet, since I can't assign a value to them.


If it can be avoided, I really don't want to go back into an overdraft or to have anything on a credit card when I graduate. If I have to obviously I will, but I'd rather avoid it at all costs.


I need the car for work as I'm a field based sales rep, and effectively based out of my car. I could get public transport to the nearest branch and collect and drop off a car from there every day, which effectively means I wouldn't need to pay tax since like you say it wouldn't then be for my own personal use. This would save me £40 a month – I've never thought it was worth it up until now, since having the car allows me to drive on nights out etc which saves on taxi fares (I live about 30 mins drive away from the closest city where most of my social life tends to happen, so it costs £20+ on taxi's any time I'm going out). I suppose I could do without this if things got really tight – I'm just not convinced it would actually save me money in real terms?


Thanks very much for all your comments though Firefox, there's definitely a couple f things for me to think about there! And hopefully a couple of suggestions that just might make it a tad easier!! :beer:


Another thought I had today, was that rather than have a formal job whilst at uni, I could maybe try and organise some tutoring work. I figure although the pay won't be as high as working 2 days at the weekend, it's obviously much less hours (1-2 tutoring, plus a couple of hours prep?) and would maybe even have the added benefit of helping me refresh the course work for any placements? Has anyone else ever done anything like that? Not sure how you'd get into it, whether it's just a matter of advertising privately, or if there's maybe an agency or something I'd have to join? Plus, am I being realistic in terms of the amount of time it's likely to take up?


xx

Crap_with_money.com

littlepinkstars44 wrote: »

if you need advice about SAAS pm me, i'm in scotland too, and on my 3rd year of my student loan

Thanks LPS! :money: :money: I will do! The biggest problem I've had with them so far, is just getting through to them!! The amount of times I've been on hold for 20 mins to then give up cause I've no time left to wait - is enough to drive you to drink!!

xx

littlepinkstars44

Crap_with_money.com wrote: »

Thanks LPS! :money: :money: I will do! The biggest problem I've had with them so far, is just getting through to them!! The amount of times I've been on hold for 20 mins to then give up cause I've no time left to wait - is enough to drive you to drink!!

xx

tell me about it! it's always the same!