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Right, one of my greatest regrets in life is not having attended University. Now rather than a lack of ability, this was due to a lack of direction, and an abundance of apathy. I never really knew what I wanted to do with my life at school, and that did affect my studies somewhat, as I had not target being aimed for to make me strive beyond the bare minimum.

And now at the age of 29, I find myself bitterly regretting this. Indeed, when I went back to work for my old Secondary School, the Teachers who were now my colleagues often asked what happened with me, stating my Brother and I were considered two of the smartest kids in our generation at the school. So I've been toying with the idea of going back to education at some point to gain a degree or qualification of some kind. Given that I seem to get on with Kids pretty well, and I thoroughly enjoyed working in an educational environment, I'm thinking Teaching might just be the very thing I've been looking for. Though rather than Secondary, I want to work in Primary.

Near to where I live, we have the Salomons Centre, part of Canterbury Christ Church University, and one of extreme few places in the UK where I can do a part time PGCE (Teaching Qualification) course.

But it's the fees. I know the Government offer incentive programmes to prospective teachers, including pretty generous grants for the study, which are continued through the first year of practice. Yet I do worry about financial side of things. I've never been the best person with money (seriously. NO savings at the moment. Which sucks) so I'm paranod about simply spunking the training money up the wall and then struggling to pay the fees.

And yet I find myself with something to prove, to myself, to my parents and to the world. I want to realise my potential.

Any advice? Encouragement? Warnings?

Now, amongst the recession, is the best time really to be entering training or education, regardless of it's type or level. At 29, you're entitled to be assessed as a Mature Student, so don't have to worry about entry requirements (except to the very top universities of course) and you, I can only assume, have been living independantly of your folks for over 3 years...now, as long as you have tracked that, you can pretty much get access to full fees unless you're earning a ridiculous large amount.

If you want advice and encouragement, then go full-time. This depends on circumstance of course, if you've acquired your own home/missus/kids then it's best to go part-time, but if you're not tied down, get the training done, and done quick. Time it right and you'll be entering a refreshed market (more so than normal anyway, I assume you know about the low level of graduate employment immediately following graduation?) Time it wrong, and you'll be no worse off, just over qualified.

I'd be careful about the reasons behind studying too - the only person you should want to prove your potential to is yourself - your parents will be proud or stubborn whatever you do - I know my mum is, she's acting like my grades for 1st year haven't happened, and is clutching onto a big mistake in 2006...but I'm ecstatic I got what I got, and you should be levelheaded and cool about whatever you choose to do in the end.

(But no, really, go to Uni...you really won't regret it! And going as a mature student is better too, as you've made the mistakes most younger students do, so won't end up crashing and burning because you drink too much, party too hard or don't give two hoots...I hope )

I left school at 18 and went to university, not because of any desire for further education but because it just seemed like everyone was doing it.

I joined up, I took the loans, I rented the flat, I spent the money on alchohol and parties, did hardly any study and left only 6 months after first joining. What a waste of time I thought, and embraced a working life instead.

Here we are, 7 or 8 years later, and I finally figured out that I DO want to better myself, to get a degree that lets me progress in my chosen career, and also as some kind of insurance for if the worst happens and I lose my current job (construction industry is a fickle beast). I now attend university one day per week, while juggling a new house, a step-child, a job that seems to run 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and all the bills, bells and whistles that go along with it.

And it's worth every stressful moment! I realise that I wasted my first opportunity due to immaturity and a rebellious streak that I thought was really cool. However, I hope I have done some growing up (not too much) and I can honestly say it will be the best move you ever make, and when you have to sacrifice other things to make it work (I'm talking about money and so on) then it will make you persevere all the more.

Go for it!

(Although the primitivist inside me still dies a little at the thought of ever more people jamming themselves into the slave-slots for our machine-god (society) to make use of them in its eternal hunger for Progress)

Currently lodging with my mate and his Mum, and driving a Taxi for a living.

So homelife and professional life are pretty good for doing a part time degree. After all, I can literally fit my work around my studies, doing longer shifts when I can, and short shifts when I need to.

Apparently, I need a degree before the Teaching Qualification, so will probably need to figure out what courses are on offer at the Salomon centre and take it fromt here. From what I can make out, it's a local wing of Canterbury for Mature Students, so I should have a pretty decent selection. Perhaps a philosophy degree? Or if I can, a History Degree in the Renaissance?

I definetly suggest going to back to school. A higher level of education is nearly neccesary anymore.
Jobs that needed no certificates or degrees now expect them and with the incentives offered from (the American government at least) now is a fantastic time to do this.

Good luck! Go for it!

I think I will pop up the Adult Education Centre on Monday, see if they can give me much in the way of pointers.

It's seriously high time I made something of my life.

Well you're an internet phenomenon already, so you're well on the way :p Going into speak to advisor is obviously your best bet, it's not like we're professionals or owt!

I did a degree part time at Birkbeck through evening classes. The fees were between £900 and £1,200 per year. It depended on which courses you were taking. I don't know if they have gone up recently.

You'll also need about £25 to £50 per module to pay for text books. You can often buy books secondhand, and sell them to next year's students, which makes it cheaper. Don't rely on the library because the books are often out on loan.

You can complete a Bachelor degree in four years study fairly easily, as long as you go to the lectures and seminars and do the reading and essays and so on.

It was hard work spending three nights a week at classes, but worthwhile.

Compare your college fees to U.S. colleges and be a llittle bit happy that you are not in such a massive rat race.

College is always good, especially studying to be a teacher. I tip my hat, and wish you luck.

I went through 7 years of university here in Oz and luckily we have a subsidised system but still do have university fees, to the tune of about 6,000 per year for a medical degree (degrees with fewer classes have lower fees).

Also fortunately we can pay those fees up front or can defer them and it gets taken from our wages.

I lose about $300-$350US per fortnight to pay my fees off and should have it all gone within a year and a half.

Yeah, the biggest problem you'll encounter coming off of degree is finding employment. That debt can start to be pretty foreboding if you don't get a job right away. That said, once you do get a job, actually paying your obligations is pretty much a snap.

Question...would you be interested in leaving the UK? I teach in Shanghai at kindergarten level. I have a degree that's nothing to do with teaching and I get a pretty decent salary. I went through a phase where I wanted more though and applied for higher level teaching jobs, but alas you have to have a teaching qualification.

The thing is though, they are begging for teachers over here (with qualifications) and are offering great salaries (around 4000 pounds a month) if you know where to look.

Even if leaving the UK is not in the books, good luck if you proceed with it!

That is an interesting thought. How would the visa process work? Would you automatically qualify if you had a job set up?

...and are offering great salaries (around 4000 pounds a month).

Really? That is amazing.

4,000.00 GBP = APP. 6,500.00 USD

You can (sometimes) get the visa done while remaining in your own country if you have the job pre-arranged.

Or you can just go there on a travel visa and they will give you training etc. If you qualify the school/company should sort a working visa out for you.

As a method of encouragement, and whilst drunk, not to mention angry at the world in general, bitter twisted, and in the mood for controversy, and knowing Dakka will remove most, if not all, of my expletives, if you genuinely want to go to University then you should go, or you are the worst kind of chicken-gak pussy who deserves nothing but contempt for your weakness tempered only with a small amount pity for being a pathetic loser who can do no better.

On the other hand, you should feel no pressure to go. If you want to go for you, great, do it man, it is awesome. If you want to go because you feel like family, friends, peers or society think you should go, then stay away. feth 'em, you don't need a degree to validate yourself.

Be yourself. Don't be too chickenshit to go, don't be too chickenshit to not go.

But if you go, make it fuckin' count, do a course you [i]want[/i[ and fuckin' pass it.

Nowadays to get a high paying job, college degrees are pretty much required. I choose to teach myself interlaced with "real" school, and life experience. Tempering these things to suit your lifestyle can be tricky, but well worth it. No need to sacrifice your entire life just to get a degree, at least most degrees.

If you want to be a doctor, I can only imagine why. Teachers tend to have quite a lot of training under their belts as they proceed through their career. Life experience is hands down the MOST important thing a teacher can bring to a classroom; these experiences should obviously be in tune with the material they are teaching.

Spoe to my friend Hannah last night, who has just qualified as a Teacher herself.

She reckons I can do a combined Teacher Training Degree, which would be 3 years full time, or 6 years part time.

At the moment, they apparently have enough Primary Teachers, though that is the fastest growing sector of education (seeing as sprogs are always being born and needing taught, with more and more being dragged kicking and screaming into the world each year than the last).

Interesting point about teaching in Shanghai. Only concern there would be how you get treated by the locals, and would I have to learn Chinese?

Well being a minority really exaggerates how much discrimination you feel. It's not actually as bad as I think it is, but anyways, most of the locals are actually quite nice (it has improved a lot with with the influx of foreigners into the country recently).

Learning the language is a big plus, though not absolutely necessary. It heps when bartering though and daily life in the poorer areas definately becomes a lot easier.

I shall look into a Linguaphone course in MAndarin then!

haha, and a good thing to get on the side is a TEFL certificate. You can find some great jobs working for the British Council. The great thing about it is that it's entirely up to you how far you take it. The longer you study, the better pay at the end. I took the minimum course (24 hours) just so I could get any job that came my way, but I have a friend who took a year's course and I know for a fact he earns at least twice what I get.

And you are serious about being able to earn up to £4,000 a week. As in £200k (and a bit) a year yes?

Whats the Tax like out there? And the living costs? Is is that lucrative for a financial reason?

Er, it's 4000 a month. And that's if you have the qualifications. And find the right school (mostly international schools...check it out on google).

I'm not sure about tax universally but I pay 0% and the living costs are (generally) a lot lower than the UK. However it's easy to get into the cycle of spending more because you have more (I also have a shopoholic wife to support). I get about 1800 - 2400 quid a month for 23 hours a week (my rate is based on hours done) and thats for a pretty average teaching job.




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slight miscalculation...I have a part time job on the side where I do 4.5 hours a week. so call it 28 hours a week.

Sounds pretty good to me.

I shall go and get my degree and gubbinz first though, then I feel a spell of falling to the communists (but not in a womanly way. Thats an entirely different kind of Falling To The Communists. And usually coincides with a visit from Auntie Flo) coming on rather rapidly. After all, why bust a nut in the UK for not a great deal of cash when I could earn more in another country. Hey, it's like Nursing. But erm, in reverse!

Well, it's not for everyone, and there's no need to rush to get over here. But if you like the sound of it then I say give it a go. Even if later on you find out you really don't wanna be doing it you can put it down to life experience.

But yeah, good luck whatever you decide to do!

Oddly enough Doc, I fell for communist ideals start of my 1st year too...mind, having Engels thrown down your gullet for 2 semesters can do that to you...


Be prepared to try everything you've spent the last 10 years stubbornly saying you never will, and be prepared to vote for people you don't like, agree with, or would be seen dead with, purely because peer pressue, random giggles and a spark of interest in the wrong seminar makes you do very very weird things...

(Like, for example, running up and down the steepest hill in the world twice, just for a packet of free polos...or voting for the guy who wants to make a sports module compulsory because you know you'll have graduated before it comes into effect )

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Spoe to my friend Hannah last night, who has just qualified as a Teacher herself.

She reckons I can do a combined Teacher Training Degree, which would be 3 years full time, or 6 years part time.

At the moment, they apparently have enough Primary Teachers, though that is the fastest growing sector of education (seeing as sprogs are always being born and needing taught, with more and more being dragged kicking and screaming into the world each year than the last).

Interesting point about teaching in Shanghai. Only concern there would be how you get treated by the locals, and would I have to learn Chinese?

I know an English teacher in Tokyo (she's English and a teacher, not a teach of English) who has managed to live there for 10 years without learning much more Japanese than 'please' and 'thank you'. She works at an international school. So it can certainly be done, but how much of a life it really is, I don't know.

I bet you get treated better by the locals if you learn some of their language.

BTW there isn't a single Chinese language any more than there is a single European language. Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Uighur and other languages are spoken by millions of people in different regions. Mandarin and Cantonese are the most widely spoken.

Gyar. Kind of knew that, but didn't know there were so many dialects beyond Mandarin and Cantonese.

I knew lots of westerners even in smaller Japanese cities who survived with little to no Japanese language. I couldn't speak it myself when I first got there.

Once you get there, being unwilling to learn Chinese would be a shame though, in my opinion.

From the being a student who studied alongside a fair few mature students, being a mature student seems like all the shyte parts of being a student with all the good bits left out. But if your going for the qualification fair enough.

whatwhat wrote:From the being a student who studied alongside a fair few mature students, being a mature student seems like all the shyte parts of being a student with all the good bits left out. But if your going for the qualification fair enough.

I simply cannot understand what you meant by that first sentence.