open university and degrees

[dieselboy]

ive been looking into a degree, know it will be a lot of work and time but it can be done.
also, i know at least one Cisco course ive done can be accounted towards the degree, so its given me a boost to hurry up and get started.

out of interest, who has a degree here? NONE of the people i hang around with have one, and probably only a hand full of people i am associated with on facebook have some sort of degree.

i would like to work in america for some amount of time, but the law states you HAVE to have a degree, and its complicated and involved.
my friends over there ALL have degrees, they are like 25 / 26 yrs old and not long been out of full time education.

[Albannach]

Don't believe you can do an OU Degree in 15 hours a week, not a chance! Mine took at least 24 hours a week every week!

[dieselboy]

Don't believe you can do an OU Degree in 15 hours a week, not a chance! Mine took at least 24 hours a week every week!

who said 15 hours a week?

[Bibs]

I have none how many of those have experience in the real world though????

Worked my way up from the bottom of my company, been there over 16 years an have a decent wage. Hard going at times but knowledge is a powerfull tool.

Have seen a fair few with degrees come an go....but if it's required and a must then give it your all an go for it.

[darkdezigns]

i did start doing an ou deg but stopped as i didnt have enough time plus i got into airbrushing,if yr on low money u will get grants etc too

[Albannach]

who said 15 hours a week?

The OU. Can't recall exactly what they said, but they quoted me 16 (15 was a typo) hours per week. With some weeks off, no chance with the one I did. I was at least 24 hours a week, every week; no time off.

That said, I'd been out of the educational system for a while, so wasn't used to learning. The younger you go into these things, the better.

[Rustinho]

I have a degree in chemistry and spent 10 years or so working in the fine chemicals/pharmaceutical sectors. I started work originally having dropped out of uni and found that I needed to have a degree to get anywhere - at least thats what I was repeatedly told.

Having got my degree it made it really easy to move sideways from job to job but it didn't improve my promotion chances (I'm too prone to pointing out when I think things aren't being done correctly. At least, thats a polite way of putting it!) So I decided that the career ladder wasn't for me and followed the "technical expert" route for a while.

With fatherhood pending and a desire to change direction in life (after redundancy) I gave up the rat race and went back to uni. I'm currently half way through Uni doing a 2 year course to become a secondary school science teacher (yeah, crazy I know but the holidays are good and the pay will be ALOT better than what I was on)

I considered doing my chemistry degree through the Open University and carrying on working but it looked like pretty heavy going so I decided to bite the bullet and quit working and live with my parents for a couple of years while I did it full time. For me that was the right decision. I like to have time to myself and it isn't cheap doing a science course with the OU (dunno how that compares to other courses). I also enjoyed the social side of being a full time student and made some really good friends while I was back at uni.

If you can hack it in terms of putting alot of work in to go the OU route then go for it. If not then it would have to be full time and make sure you cut back on living standards and tighten your belt for a few years!

I'm actually better off financially at the moment because of grants, loans & (tax free) bursary than I was when I was working and spending a fortune on fuel, etc, commuting to work and back. Funny old world!

I hope this info helps - if you want to get in touch to discuss anything further feel free to give me a shout.

[gwh200]

Do it tony, i went to sussex uni from 2003-7 aqnd had a blast......my wife was across the road at brighton university,she is now a primary school teacher and i............work with poo, but its VERY well paid.A good science based degree is going to involve at least 30 hours of tuition a week and lots of "burning the midnight oil" but its well worth it

(it didnt improve my punctuation though)

[Bogus]

Yes Tony, do it. Nowadays with just about every school leaver going on to uni, a degree is almost a necessity. I personally dont have one, but Im old and I suppose all round experience has taken me to the top of my particular tree. My employer does specify a degree in a " science" type subject for anyone applying for my position, so I suppose I could consider myself lucky to be where I am. An awful lot of the people working for me are far better qualified than me and many have degrees. My sister has an OU degree which she got while bringing up 2 kids and has a great job in the education sector. My daughter has 2 degrees, an MA and an MSc, and has a great job, thanks to those. You are young enough to get one and still have lots of years left to reap the benefits. It wont be easy but it will certainly be do-able and the amount of study required will depend on the chosen subject and your personal qualities/abilities. You may well be able to cope with the 16 hrs/week, then again you may need more. Just do it. It will open more doors for you. It will guarantee nothing of course as its very competitive out there, but once the doors are open to you you have a better chance than those on the other side. So stop wittering and wondering, get on and do it.

Bogus

[gwh200]

Couldnt have put it better myself alex.

[Bogus]

Couldnt have put it better myself alex.

Im sure you could have if you had bothered. ( you being an educated gent and all ) This just happened to be one of the rare occasions where I felt I could be ar5ed to string more than one word together. I know how fortunate I am,to be where I am, without a degree and I know how important education can be. Its not of course the be all and end all, as even idiots get degrees, ( I know people who are so stupid that I automatically know they must have a degree. They are so stupid that they must have learned it somewhere, it could not come naturally), but no question that the degree certificate opens doors, and the rest is up to the holder.

Bogus

[gwh200]

Again couldnt agree more........(there's more)

When i was studying, there was a huge push for mature students, to go back into education. An unfortunate side effect were the rather strange degrees on offer. As mine was science based, it required aprrox 30 hours a week attendance, lots of work at home and gallons of coffee. A very good freind (who became so from uni) embarked on a media based degree, requiring one and a half hours per week attendance, the rest of the course being home based. He has done rather well for himself, but by his own admission, being economical with the truth, in relation to his BA.
he has often said, that after the course and during a recruitment fair,one of the best jobs on offer was with tesco's pr department. The salary started at £18000 a year graded up to £26000 a year....not a lot for an extra 4 years of education,and about £25000 of student loan debt.
Luckily employers also seem to put much stock on experience (seems more prevalent here in scotland, than england), so yes, further education is never wasted,you just need to choose very carefully, to make sure your choosing a degree course suited to you, rather than something that makes some government department look good
(and unless your doing english language, dont expect your punctuation/grammar to improve,thats the product of experience.................ie being beaten over the knuckles for getting it wrong)


And im still getting it wrong now

[da SLUG man]

the holidays are good

i thought teachers sat around drinking tea and only working from 9-3pm!...

then i met Mrs slug!!

She lives an hour from the school (good idea if you don't wanna met parents in the pub!)

works 8-30 till 5pm quite often without mush of a break as it's either her turn for playground duty, or she's preparing for the next lesson.

then home for 6.30, has dinner and usually preparation and planning untill 9.30-10pm!!

the holidays are spent planning and preparing for the next term and going into school taking down displays, moving classrooms, putting up new displays etc. etc....

she also has to buy her own resourse folders ... these are £100 each

the "music room" (well, it's got a piano in it!) at home is absolutely chocka with books, homework, plastic pots, you name it, it's there!!

we've just been away for the weekend, but back today as she's back to school on wednesday!!


she's changing from year 2 to year 4 next year, so she has to buy a whole load more books and folders and prepare what year4 need to learn!

not much fun really!!

oh, and the money's only good if you get promoted to team leader, department head, etc. etc.

but i still take the ####!... ###### part timers!... hehehe!!

[da SLUG man]

i looked at doing a physics degree on OU, but it doesn't really make it clear exactly how much it's gonna cost, or how long it will take!... there seem to be infinite combinations of ways to do the degree!!

[dieselboy]

I know people who are so stupid that I automatically know they must have a degree.
Bogus

thanks! this gives me great hope :p in a few years time i will be one of those people you mentioned where you just immediately think that i am so ridiculously stupid, it's unquestionable that i must have a degree of some sort

jokes asside, i think i am going for an open degree. reason is that i can transfer points from qualifications i have already achieved. i dont need a degree for my job (and going by monster, and other job websites in my chosen field i most likely wouldnt need one for roles in the future). but i know a degree on paper helps. plus, if i do need a named degree for a job role i could go down that route sometime in the future.
i'm currently half way to CCNP status, and hope to achieve CCVP soon as possible after..
so as long as the OU is what i think it is (working at your own pace) then i can do certain things when i can.

the only reason i've been looking into it is because i wish to emmigrate. if i had intentions of staying in this country indefinately then i would just stick to the cisco certifications and probably do contracting.

i would like to take some english spelling courses though, for un-named reasons.

thanks for all your input !