10 months in and 90 left to go ... the reality is starting to kick in :)

taxi73

what's ILA?
very sobering indeed once tax and insurance is gone

elantan

Individual learning account, it's a £200 towards certain courses that I can claim, I will be using mine to do the ecdl

skint_spice

Can you do that on your own and just work through it with support? I think folk do that here. Depressing thought how little you end up with though

elantan

I think you can Fiona it seems to be a drop in type course that you sit a test for every section (7 tests if I remember right) but I think the ila mainly pays for the tests or something

I won't be paying for the course if I send my form away so it's not so bad in that sense, it's just really to lose the gap in my c.v so I can get a job that pays me more tha £4 an hour after tax and n.i ... And a full time one would be nice as well ... This part time malarkey ain't not good for living

rising_from_the_ashes

elantan wrote: »

after tax and national insurance I earn £4 an hour ... That's very sobering

Carp isn't it ......

elantan wrote: »

Individual learning account, it's a £200 towards certain courses that I can claim, I will be using mine to do the ecdl

elantan wrote: »

it's just really to lose the gap in my c.v

Ohhhhhh thanks for the reminder on those!

I'd looked at them (several times) as still trying to find the money to finish my degree - but since it looks like it's going to be around £5k:eek: it ain't going to happen anytime soon.

Was really p'd off so never thought of looking at anything else - looked at the ecdl a couple of years ago but the cost put me off (and at that time I was paying for my HND so wasn't an option).

Off to have a hunt!:)

rising_from_the_ashes

Sent away for a new ILA pack:) (had one but it's OOD now) and they run courses reasonably near me in the evenings!!!! :j

Not quite sure how many modules there are - next search to do!;) - but each one is £60 so the £200 won't go far .... but worth making a start on them!:)

elantan

It certainly is, what type of modules are you looking for ?

Is the 5k to pay for the degree part time? It's an awful lot of money isn't it ? I gave up after my H.N.D ( hated uni) and have all that student debt to think about paying back, although on a part time wage earning £4 an hour after tax I don't think that will be anytime soon lol

rising_from_the_ashes

elantan wrote: »

It certainly is, what type of modules are you looking for ?

Need to do a bit more research on it - like you, trying to plug a gap in the CV with regards to IT:)

elantan wrote: »

Is the 5k to pay for the degree part time? It's an awful lot of money isn't it ? I gave up after my H.N.D ( hated uni) and have all that student debt to think about paying back

*sigh* - it's sooooo frustrating - another example of how the system is just wonderful and fair to all!

If I went FT then it'd be fully paid for - but being single, there's no way I can do this as need to pay the bills ......... if I do it PT I get no funding ..... if I do it online, I could use the ILA but only if it's with a Scottish Unit and none of them do it online ..... the OU have odd credit transfers and need to do an awful lot more modules through them - and it's bloomin' expensive ..... so .... that leaves doing it online through a Learning / Training Company or an English Uni ..... not idea and I'd need to go for exams etc which would be really difficult too

It's so frustrating as loads of employers are now putting "Educated to Degree Level" as job requirements* - think it's to try to cut down on the number of people applying .... but I still can't justify spending that sort of money

* lady I worked with saw her old job advertised stating "degree" on it - she'd done it for 10+ years and left school with o'grades .... it's a really unfair way to cut out loads of potentially fab employees!

*rant over*:o

elantan

I fully back your rant, having paid quite a bit myself for courses I know how frustrating it is, I used to sit in class with people that had theirs paid that just couldn't be !!!!!d in turning up and wonder to myself " would they be like this of they had paid the fee"

I did full time uni for two years only went in 9 hours a week to uni .... Thought that was pretty shambolic as well... What course is 9 hours full time ? How is 9 hours a full time uni course ?
But then in second year we did a class with duplo bricks . So I don't exactly think it was a very good example I what university is like

rising_from_the_ashes

elantan wrote: »

I fully back your rant, having paid quite a bit myself for courses I know how frustrating it is, I used to sit in class with people that had theirs paid that just couldn't be !!!!!d in turning up and wonder to myself " would they be like this of they had paid the fee"

Ohhhh I so get where you're coming from!

elantan wrote: »

I did full time uni for two years only went in 9 hours a week to uni .... Thought that was pretty shambolic as well... What course is 9 hours full time ? How is 9 hours a full time uni course ?

It worked out I'd need to go 1 x full day & 2 x 1/2 days - I could maybe have stretched to that (working longer days to make up the hours & could have managed to drop a 1/2 day for the 9 months needed) but the days were different every term & I'm only allowed to alter my hours/days once a year at work, so couldn't do that:(