Access to HE Courses

Indie_Kid

There is a lot of hard work involved. However, some of it I'd done before (I did GCSEs 3 years before, four of which were in IT) and it was just building upon my knowledge.

Trix

After virtually dropping out of school in my last 2 years there for no reason other than all of my friends were older and left school or were my age and didn't bother going, I left school with only 4 GCSEs - 3 D's and a C with the C being in maths (god knows how I managed that with hardly attending a class!)

I did my 1st HEFC (access courses) in Social Welfare, purely out of interest and to relive boredom, at 29 years old when my 2 kids were 9 years old and 5 years. I really enjoyed it despite being out of education for so long so went on to do another 3 - Psychology, English and Quantitative Methods (maths ) The workload for English (which I wish I had done 1st) felt like quite a lot at the time whereas the others weren't so bad. I then went on to university and have just graduated

It sounds like you have made some really sensible choices with a lot of thought and consideration put into them about how they will fit into your present and future life plans which should mean you feel a lot more confident. All of that along with a passion to learn will get you a long way. Good luck! :T

benjismum

Hi Trix, thanks for your message, it's very encouraging And well done on graduating - I have no idea what quantitative methods are!

Good luck with your future career

divastrop

alwaysonthego wrote: »

University is easier than an access course in relation to your workload. Well done for completing your access course and good luck for uni x

Thank you, I will find out next week if I passed the exams :eek:
I was going to do Social Work at uni but it would have meant 3 hours travel a day and I would never have seen my children, so I am going to do a Foundation degree in Health and Social care (hopefully) then see if I can do a top up to get a BA/ BSc.

I really enjoyed the Access course, yes it was allot of work but It was enjoyable work as I found the subjects interesting. I hadn't studied since becoming ill and subsequently only sitting one of my 3 A-levels ,15 years ago. One of the best things about the course was the other students, everyone had interesting stories of how they had got to that point in their lives and we all encouraged and supported each other.

alwaysonthego_2

divastrop wrote: »

Thank you, I will find out next week if I passed the exams :eek:
I was going to do Social Work at uni but it would have meant 3 hours travel a day and I would never have seen my children, so I am going to do a Foundation degree in Health and Social care (hopefully) then see if I can do a top up to get a BA/ BSc.

I really enjoyed the Access course, yes it was allot of work but It was enjoyable work as I found the subjects interesting. I hadn't studied since becoming ill and subsequently only sitting one of my 3 A-levels ,15 years ago. One of the best things about the course was the other students, everyone had interesting stories of how they had got to that point in their lives and we all encouraged and supported each other.

Three of my friends from my Access course did the same degree as me and it was good that we could still support one another through university. I did enjoy the Access course, however we were not taught how to do the referencing correctly.

ells888

benjismum wrote: »

Hi, many thanks for all the replies!

There seems to be a lot of different opinions on the Access course. Some people say it's very hard, lots of work, etc. while others say it's a breeze. After a lot of research and thought I've decided for this year I'm going to take a free, year-long Skills for Life course in English and Maths, which gives a qualification equivilent to GCSE A-C grade. Hopefully that would mean I will not have to take the extra classes when I go for the Access course next year!

Another factor in my decision is wanting to learn to drive, this would also make it easier to get to classes at college. The free course I'm going to do this year is within walking distance and will only be for 2-4 hours a week, leaving me with plenty of time for driving lessons.

I'm relieved to have finally made a decision! I've got a plan now for the next few years of my life:

From Sept 2010 - English & Maths Skills for Life courses and driving lessons
From Sept 2011 - Access to Higher Education (possibly the two year part-time course)
From then who knows, maybe a degree in psychology! But to be honest, I'd just be glad to get back some of the education I missed out on.

Thanks again

Well done on taking the plunge benjismum ... im going into my 2nd year of access course in Sept, and i think when you start yours hopefully in 2011, you'l never look back. You'l be fab x

NEH

alwaysonthego wrote: »

University is easier than an access course in relation to your workload. Well done for completing your access course and good luck for uni x

Not really, depends on what you do...I have done two access courses as my first one ran out, they only have a 5 year lifespan.....

With my second one which was a lot more intense than the first one. The first one was when they were in their beginnings and were only available to certain age groups.

With my second one, had i had to do the G.C.S.E part as well I would have been in 5 days a week, some would have been shorter than others but still a 5 day a week with homework on top. You also this tiem around had to do a projet or dissertation which in our group went on for about 3 months by the time we had done the research, presented our findings, analysed it and then done the presentations..


I then went on to do a Humantities based degree and yes whilst i was only at uni for 8 hours a week the work to do at home was immense. You had to read a novel a week, you had to read numerous history sources, usually a few assignments on the go as well as all the research etc...I also had to do film studies as we had to do 3 subjects at uni and there was the screenings for them as well which despite popular belief wasn't an easy option as you have to make notes and comment and analyse them the following seminar....

As well as the 8 hours "taught" lectures you had seminars etc as well...

It might be different for science based degrees but certianly for uni wasn't any less intense than the access course.

Anyway back to the OP, good luck with it all. unfortunately for me it didn't work out as I had a relapse with my health condition but if i had the choice i would say the Access course is the way to go rather than conventional A levels or highers.

In a round about way i am glad it didn't work out as there would have been no jobs for me afterwards and I would have wasted 4 years of my life when there was another route for me to go down other than university.

I would recommend that if you are going to university for a reason that you research your chosen career well and what the job prospects are like...

benjismum

I haven't come across anyone who didn't enjoy the Access courses so that's encouraging!

Angelic - Skills for Life courses are free and are available all over the country. You can do English or Maths, or both. There are three levels:

Entry - lower than GCSE grade G
Level One - Equiv. to GCSE D-G
Level Two - Equiv. to GCSE A-C

The certificates are said to be looked on as an alternative to GCSEs which is good news for me as if I wanted to take English and maths GCSE they would be £200-300 each. Hopefully I'll get both at level 2! You can visit the official website and take the mini test to find what level you are at - www.move-on.org.uk You can also find your nearest centre offering the courses on there. I got level 2 on English and level 1 on maths - I'm really bad at maths! on the mini tests. I've got an interview tomorrow at my local adult education centre to have an official assessment to see what levels I am at before they place me on the appropriate course/s. The classes are two hours long and both subjects can be studied either together or separately. I'll let you know how the assessment goes for me!

ells888 - Thank you Are you doing the Access course part time? If so, what hours do you do each week? I would be looking at doing it part time myself as it would fit in with my life easier. Good luck to you!

benjismum

NEH - A very interesting post. Does the five year life span mean you have to go to uni within 5 years of finishing the course? I'm not looking at going to uni myself but this is interesting as I haven't come across it before. I think the difference for me with this course is the fact that I'm not looking for a career - simply to add to my knowledge and for something to fill my time! However, perhaps in the future my plans will change and I'll be glad of having done it. The workload does sound pretty heavy, although I don't work so have plenty of spare time. I'm glad things worked out for you in the end

Trix

benjismum - I know that question wasn't to me, but they do have a 5 year life span which does mean that you have to go to uni within 5 years of finishing the course. I hadn't planned to go to uni either and was just doing it out of boredom/interest but because I enjoyed doing them so much it made me decide to go to uni which I also enjoyed doing so I'm now looking at doing a masters!

I don't know how other areas do it - but with my area you either do a 'pathway' which is 3 subjects tailored to specific sorts of degrees, or you choose individual ones which is what I did. English & Quantitative Methods (just a posh word for maths really ) are the 2 main ones - especially if you haven't got C or above in them at GCSE level. You have the choice of doing 3 over one year, or only doing one or two per year. I did one per year as, like I said, I was doing it out of pure interest originally. You get a certificate for each one completed then a certificate that covers all three which is the amount needed to class as the full HEFC certificate which lasts for the 5 years.

I kept changing my mind about what I wanted to do at uni (once I decided I was going to go for it!) which is why I ended up doing 4 HEFCs I had an interest in Social Work which is why I did Social Welfare, but felt that I didn't really feel like I wanted to be a social worker (my dad was one) just something in that sort of field. Then I wanted to do Psychology (which you MUST have maths for), but I found that the long term career prospects of a psychology degree alone aren't brilliant and you really have to do a lot more study on top of the degree if you want to be a psychologist or that sort of thing, which I didn't feel was quite what I wanted to be either, so that put me off doing it.

I found the courses were a good help to starting uni, especially after a break from education for so long, and because the college I went to was linked to the university they had the same marking schemes and ways of referencing which gave me a great head-start!

It's difficult for me to compare the workloads between the HEFCs and the degree because each HEFC was different and I did them one at time. For example - the English HEFC had 10 pieces of work to do (essays/presentations/debates/written exams). The HEFC Psychology had only about 4 essays and 2 exams, the QM had mini bits of homework every week and then 2 exams, and the Social Welfare had about 5 essays and a presentation (most of that is from memory - I'm not sure on exact amounts) The essays were all just about 1,000 - 2,000 words.

For my degree I had about 8 essays to write between late September and early June, all around 2,000 - 4,000 words, a few presentations, then a 9,000 word dissertation in my final year. So if I had done 3 HEFCs all at once - that would have actually been a higher workload than I had at uni, but with a degree you obviously have to go a lot more in-depth and look at various sources of information which involves lots and lots of reading and analysing.

Each HEFC I did lasted for 3 hours once per week and I did the night-time ones. The lectures & seminars I had at uni lasted 2 hours per module and I did 6 modules per week in the 1st and 2nd year, then less in the final year. Some days I would do 3 modules back to back whereas other days I did one module, or had one module then a 4 hour break then another module.

I don't know how typical all of that is to other areas though, and obviously each degree is different.

Hope that isn't too much info or not the sort you were looking for