Unmotivated son!

FBaby

Except it's a year without an income which makes it unviable for many students.

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Why without an income? You can easily study for an access course whilst still working. The bottom line is that it will be harder than it would have been putting a bit of effort first time around, but that's the price you pay for not having done so.

The bottom line though it is possible and indeed, know someone who has and is just starting to enjoy the rewards of it.

Person_one

FBaby wrote: »

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Why without an income? You can easily study for an access course whilst still working.

I'm pretty sure the access courses are full time, so you might be able to drop/change your hours or change to a new part time job that fits around it, but for most people its going to mean a significant drop in income.

pigpen

I did the access course full time as a single parent with 7 children at home alongside my cousins mrs who was working 40 hours.. it is possible to do them over 2 years part time too. Most did work along side the course.. usually flexible jobs like shops, bars, care homes etc.

I funded it entirely myself (£469 or thereabouts) I believe there was a college bursary at up to £30 a week but I never applied as I didnt think I would be eligible.. with hindsight, I was!

FBaby wrote: »

]
The bottom line is that it will be harder than it would have been putting a bit of effort first time around, but that's the price you pay for not having done so.

thats not accurate either.. I did rather well at my a-levels but couldnt continue to do the exams and in order to apply for a uni place you have to have committed to education outside of the home in the last 3 years so if you finish a-levels at 18 by the time you are 21 you woud probably have to do the access course unless you have been in education during that time.. it does depend on the course but most would require it.

mumps

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I haven't kept up to date with the recent changes - will student nurses be any worse off than other degree students?

Person_one wrote: »

Not in terms of how much they receive in loan payments, they will be on the same finance package as someone studying English Literature or History, but those students don't work 40 hour weeks of varying shifts on hospital wards for 50% of their course which impacts massively on their ability to do other paid work to support themselves through the three years.

Nursing and other health professions (who are also losing the bursary) traditionally attract more mature students than most other courses. They often have caring responsibilities, mortgages, and other commitments that will make them think twice about going ahead now that they'll be incurring so much debt. The sort of options that these people could take if they were doing English or History (OU, part time courses etc) are not a possibility.

They also have much shorter holidays when they can work, my son had five or six weeks holidays a year when he was a student nurse, his siblings had twice that in the summer and then Christmas and Easter on top.

pigpen

mumps wrote: »

They also have much shorter holidays when they can work, my son had five or six weeks holidays a year when he was a student nurse, his siblings had twice that in the summer and then Christmas and Easter on top.

my college mates didnt get holidays .. they had placements over the university vacations.. including 3 month placements over summer and they were usually not in the town where they lived or studied!

FBaby

thats not accurate either..

My comment was relating to the situation that was discussed, ie. a kid who needs to do an access course because they didn't get the grades at GCSE. Of course it doesn't apply to everyone on the access course.

Person_one

pigpen wrote: »

thats not accurate either.. I did rather well at my a-levels but couldnt continue to do the exams and in order to apply for a uni place you have to have committed to education outside of the home in the last 3 years so if you finish a-levels at 18 by the time you are 21 you woud probably have to do the access course unless you have been in education during that time.. it does depend on the course but most would require it.

That's not accurate either...

mumps

pigpen wrote: »

my college mates didnt get holidays .. they had placements over the university vacations.. including 3 month placements over summer and they were usually not in the town where they lived or studied!

My other 3 all had uni holidays as did most of their friends, a few did placements in industry but they were paid.

Did your mates get holidays at Christmas and Easter? My son got three weeks off at the end of August/beginning of September but that was at the end of a 3 month placement doing 40 hr weeks on a psychiatric ward plus essays for uni. He usually managed to do a few shifts for money but not enough to make a difference. As Person-One said it is also difficult to get regular part-time work due to the shifts they have to work.