adult careers advice

want2bmortgage3

my friend is 28 and works full time in london and rents a flat with his girlfriend.

his background is office jobs and currently is doing office admin.

his education goes up to gcse and he got 3 a-c grades.

he wants to improve his education while still working and aim towards a better job in the future although is not sure exactly what he wants to end up doing.

i did a bit of reading and found he might be able to study free for level 2 qualifications as he did not get 5 gcse a-c's. would this be the way forward this year and then maybe move on to level 3 qualifications next year?

can anyone help and advise what his options are?? thanks a lot

Oldernotwiser

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

my friend is 28 and works full time in london and rents a flat with his girlfriend.

his background is office jobs and currently is doing office admin.

his education goes up to gcse and he got 3 a-c grades.

he wants to improve his education while still working and aim towards a better job in the future although is not sure exactly what he wants to end up doing.

i did a bit of reading and found he might be able to study free for level 2 qualifications as he did not get 5 gcse a-c's. would this be the way forward this year and then maybe move on to level 3 qualifications next year?

can anyone help and advise what his options are?? thanks a lot

As he only has 3 GCSEs these don't count as a full level 2 qualification so he should be able to get a course at this level paid for under the "level 2 entitlement". He could then progress to level 3 on the same basis.

Obviously he needs to decide what career direction he should take and he can make an appointment with a Nextstep Adviser for a face to face interview or he can discuss things by phone with a Learndirect Adviser. Both of these services are free.

If he gets down to it quickly he will be in time to enrol on a course this September.

(Colleges may have their own advisors who can help but he needs to remember that they can have their own agenda, part of which may be filling their own courses! Nextstep and Learndirect should be able to offer unbiased advice.)

want2bmortgage3

thanks oldernotwise, great advice as i have come to expect from you.

i will advise him to contact learn direct and next step.

as for me i'd like to take an a-level or equivelent this year, but part time in the evenings. my local college doesnt seem to do a-levels part time, but does a couple of gcses. is there any reason why they dont do a-levels i thought you could do them as night courses?

Oldernotwiser

Where I used to work stopped offering evening A levels some years ago. The rationale was that A levels are generally inappropriate for adults (plus they didn't get the take up required!) as,

a. Many people can go straight into an OU degree.
b. Access courses are better for people doing university entrance.
c. There are many level 3 vocational courses available for which students could claim the level 3 entitlement, which they couldn't for the odd A level.

They carried on offering English, Maths and Human Biology GCSE as these are a requirement for many careers such as nursing and teaching, as well as general career advancement. There's normally an enormous demand for at least the first 2 of these subjects.

This may not be the thinking where you are; colleges are independent and there are many different ideas around. What sort of thing were you looking to do and for what purpose?

want2bmortgage3

Interesting onw, thats obviously happened at my local college too. I guess they expect adults to know exactly what they are aiming for so try to push them straight into a degree course (via access course if necessary).

Which means I have to go away and think further about what, if anything, I want to aim for career-wise. It aint easy...

Oldernotwiser

want2bmortgage3 wrote: »

Interesting onw, thats obviously happened at my local college too. I guess they expect adults to know exactly what they are aiming for so try to push them straight into a degree course (via access course if necessary).

Which means I have to go away and think further about what, if anything, I want to aim for career-wise. It aint easy...

You don't need to know exactly what career you want to go for if you do an Access course, except in a general way. Most Access courses are loosely grouped around vocational areas like Health or Social Studies, or general academic areas like Humanities and Science.

As long as you try to cover as many options as possible (make sure there's a Science element if you think you might want to go in for Nursing or a subject you might want to teach if you think teaching's a possibility) you should be fine.

What sort of Access courses are on offer locally for you?

want2bmortgage3

they do 5 access courses..
-business and law
-health
-psychology
-science
-social work

sorry for the delay in replying. i know i am better than my job, not in a demeaning way but i can do better. starting to realise i should look to my strengths, and what i'm naturally good at, rather than thinking i can do anything if i really want to. doesn't help with the current economic situation as well as the position i'm in right now paying a big mortgage (see my other threads!). hope you are still about oldernotwiser?

Oldernotwiser

Atomised wrote: »

Are they not all covered on the same access course?

I would expect them to be separate intakes but with some overlapping subject areas. As an example, where I used to work the Access to Nursing covered Human Biology, Psychology, Sociology plus one other,whereas the Access to Social Work covered Psychology, Sociology, Gender Studies plus one other. This meant that a possible nurse could switch to social work but a possible social worker couldn't switch to nursing unless s/he had opted for Human Biology as his/her fourth option.

W2BN3

I'm sorry, I missed your last post but hope you come back and let me know where you're thinking is at present, or you could always pm me.