Calling all Students! - Translation needed

[RickyS]

Hi All
i'm sure some of you may have been through redundancy before, it happened to me late last year, I have worked in the Printing Trade most of my life and it has declined massively to the extent that there are literally no jobs. I did see it coming and had been giving some thought to the future. I knew I had to change direction completely and decided that I would re-train, and changing direction completely. I had sort of decided to go for Social Work, but because I have not had care experience i wont be accepted to the course. Since then I had been thinking of Occupational Therapy, I have done some research but when I get to looking at the requirements for the course, none of it makes any sense to me, maybe i'm just getting old....
Could someone make sense of it for me? what do I need to get in?
Thanks in advance:not worth

[Sylar]

Hi All
i'm sure some of you may have been through redundancy before, it happened to me late last year, I have worked in the Printing Trade most of my life and it has declined massively to the extent that there are literally no jobs. I did see it coming and had been giving some thought to the future. I knew I had to change direction completely and decided that I would re-train, and changing direction completely. I had sort of decided to go for Social Work, but because I have not had care experience i wont be accepted to the course. Since then I had been thinking of Occupational Therapy, I have done some research but when I get to looking at the requirements for the course, none of it makes any sense to me, maybe i'm just getting old....
Could someone make sense of it for me? what do I need to get in?
Thanks in advance:not worth

Depends entirely on the institution and level of the course.

For something like Social Care of Occupational Therapy though, like many other positions which "require" some form of qualification, be prepared for a long haul of study, as more often than not, a degree isn't enough anymore.

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/details/Default.aspx?Id=299

This seems to suggest you need 5 GCSE's (Standard Grades in my vocabulary) and 2 A level's (2 AH or 3 Highers) at least one of which must be a science (with some Universities specifying that you hold an A level (or equivalent) in biology.

The only thing I would say is that if it's been a while since you were at high school (based on your age), then your high school qualifications are probably now invalid (for University, it's usually qualifications earned within 5 years of applying) so your best bet is probably through an access or summer school.

[RickyS]

Depends entirely on the institution and level of the course.

For something like Social Care of Occupational Therapy though, like many other positions which "require" some form of qualification, be prepared for a long haul of study, as more often than not, a degree isn't enough anymore.

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/details/Default.aspx?Id=299

This seems to suggest you need 5 GCSE's (Standard Grades in my vocabulary) and 2 A level's (2 AH or 3 Highers) at least one of which must be a science (with some Universities specifying that you hold an A level (or equivalent) in biology.

The only thing I would say is that if it's been a while since you were at high school (based on your age), then your high school qualifications are probably now invalid (for University, it's usually qualifications earned within 5 years of applying) so your best bet is probably through an access or summer school.

Thanks for that mate, I can do the 5 GCSE's but I left school in 1994 so dont know if they would be valid.
I left to start an apprenticeship and never did any highers, and the thought of studying for 3 highers BEFORE i can start a course lasting 3yrs+ doesn't exactly fill me with joy.
ah well looks like its back to the drawing board....

[LeithWalkHibby]

Speak to someone at Careers Scotland. They will explain it all.
http://www.careers-scotland.org.uk/ContactUs/ContactIntro.asp

[Meetheed]

I was in a relatively similar position 3 years ago, hoping to pursue a career in teaching. I had always believed as a mature student I would gain a place at Uni quite easily. Luckily, on the spur of the moment, I enrolled to do a couple of highers at Stevenson the week before the term started. I thought of it as easing myself in more than anything.

It was during my time at college that I found out my highers from school would no longer be considered, as TSSF says above. Basically Stirling Uni told me not to bother as 2 highers would never be enough. I must say the support from the staff at Stevenson was a massive help. They encouraged me to apply anyway, which I did, and I received a conditional offer. Basically, I got in to Uni at the first attempt and was fortunate to do so. My advice would be to get on the blower to the unis that offer the courses you're interested in and seek their advice regarding possible routes in. Most mature students I've come across have come through an access course at college which i believe is a year long.

Don't let an extra year put you off. I had five to start with and in a couple of months I'll only have two left to go, it's flown by, genuinely. I hopeful that five years study will benefit me for the next thirty after but who knows, maybe I'll still be sitting in the cab ranked up on George St as I am right now! :wink:

[Speedy]

I was in a relatively similar position 3 years ago, hoping to pursue a career in teaching. I had always believed as a mature student I would gain a place at Uni quite easily. Luckily, on the spur of the moment, I enrolled to do a couple of highers at Stevenson the week before the term started. I thought of it as easing myself in more than anything.

It was during my time at college that I found out my highers from school would no longer be considered, as TSSF says above. Basically Stirling Uni told me not to bother as 2 highers would never be enough. I must say the support from the staff at Stevenson was a massive help. They encouraged me to apply anyway, which I did, and I received a conditional offer. Basically, I got in to Uni at the first attempt and was fortunate to do so. My advice would be to get on the blower to the unis that offer the courses you're interested in and seek their advice regarding possible routes in. Most mature students I've come across have come through an access course at college which i believe is a year long.

Don't let an extra year put you off. I had five to start with and in a couple of months I'll only have two left to go, it's flown by, genuinely. I hopeful that five years study will benefit me for the next thirty after but who knows, maybe I'll still be sitting in the cab ranked up on George St as I am right now! :wink:

This would be my advice. Each uni will have different entrance requirements.

[Sylar]

This would be my advice. Each uni will have different entrance requirements.

:agree:

Another option would be to try and obtain the qualification through the Open University, which is a bit more relaxed in terms of requirements for commencing study.

Universities like Edinburgh are going to be well oversubscribed next year as many European students will now opt for Scotland ahead of England, as they still get their education free up here (through some odd loophole), so the earlier you get the ball rolling, the better, as I'm sure the deadline for UCAS applications (from high school students) is around March.

[Beefster]

As had been said, the best thing you can do is speak to the institutions directly. They will all have either a 'mature student' or 'wider access' coordinator and most are genuinely interested in helping out, if they can.

Before I went to Edinburgh, I went through a convoluted combination of Open University courses and sitting Highers quickly at Stevenson College. I was lucky though that I had already been sitting OU courses because I had been sponsored by my employer.

Another route to consider is to do a HND in a relevant area. My brother did this before gaining entry to the second year of a degree at Napier. It may take an extra year overall (i.e. 2 for HND and 3 for degree) but it deals with the problem of not having Highers.

[ArabHibee]

Another option would be to try and obtain the qualification through the Open University, which is a bit more relaxed in terms of requirements for commencing study.
Universities like Edinburgh are going to be well oversubscribed next year as many European students will now opt for Scotland ahead of England, as they still get their education free up here (through some odd loophole), so the earlier you get the ball rolling, the better, as I'm sure the deadline for UCAS applications (from high school students) is around March.

Oh those pesky foreign students. :wink:

[RickyS]

big thanks to everyone here, I have spoken to the open university about a few things and have some thinking to do. but since then I have looked at doing "highers" and found that I don't qualify for these courses either because my exam results where not at the required level. ie I needed english at 2 or above and one other at 2 or above.
my exam results were not great, I missed a lot of school due to ill health all the way through high school and to be honest I dont think I grasped how important these grades can be at 15/16 and I had the chance to leave and start work.

so in summary, most of the courses that interested me required at least one higher, and I can't study that Higher because my grades were not high enough!

I might have to wait for an Open Day to go along and sit down with an advisor.

but as I said thanks to everyone who helped me

[Sylar]

big thanks to everyone here, I have spoken to the open university about a few things and have some thinking to do. but since then I have looked at doing "highers" and found that I don't qualify for these courses either because my exam results where not at the required level. ie I needed english at 2 or above and one other at 2 or above.
my exam results were not great, I missed a lot of school due to ill health all the way through high school and to be honest I dont think I grasped how important these grades can be at 15/16 and I had the chance to leave and start work.

so in summary, most of the courses that interested me required at least one higher, and I can't study that Higher because my grades were not high enough!

I might have to wait for an Open Day to go along and sit down with an advisor.

but as I said thanks to everyone who helped me

Seriously, I wouldn't wait, as most of the Open Days have come and gone, as most high school pupils have made their minds up with regards to where they're applying to for the start of the Fall session.

There will be summer access courses running at nearly all Universities, so your best bet to get into a course without resorting to a long-winded route of obtaining highers will probably be via these courses.

Best select a few of the Uni's which interest you and phone around their admissions departments and discuss it sooner rather than later.

[RickyS]

Seriously, I wouldn't wait, as most of the Open Days have come and gone, as most high school pupils have made their minds up with regards to where they're applying to for the start of the Fall session.

There will be summer access courses running at nearly all Universities, so your best bet to get into a course without resorting to a long-winded route of obtaining highers will probably be via these courses.

Best select a few of the Uni's which interest you and phone around their admissions departments and discuss it sooner rather than later.

thanks for that, I apologise for my shocking lack of knowledge on the subject!
I found details about the Access to Higher Education course. it seems you can customise what you study and get a qualification equivalent to a higher which opens the door to courses I fancy. I went on to Telford's site but I cant find it?
would it be known by anything else?

[Beefster]

big thanks to everyone here, I have spoken to the open university about a few things and have some thinking to do. but since then I have looked at doing "highers" and found that I don't qualify for these courses either because my exam results where not at the required level. ie I needed english at 2 or above and one other at 2 or above.
my exam results were not great, I missed a lot of school due to ill health all the way through high school and to be honest I dont think I grasped how important these grades can be at 15/16 and I had the chance to leave and start work.

so in summary, most of the courses that interested me required at least one higher, and I can't study that Higher because my grades were not high enough!

I might have to wait for an Open Day to go along and sit down with an advisor.

but as I said thanks to everyone who helped me


thanks for that, I apologise for my shocking lack of knowledge on the subject!
I found details about the Access to Higher Education course. it seems you can customise what you study and get a qualification equivalent to a higher which opens the door to courses I fancy. I went on to Telford's site but I cant find it?
would it be known by anything else?

You'll sometimes find that the criteria for mature students is more relaxed than the standard requirements so I wouldn't base any decisions on what a webpage says (if that's what you are doing).

I'm not sure exactly what you're looking for but these might help:

https://courses.ed-coll.ac.uk/website/onlineserviceslive/resultsYearLive.aspx?directory=true&ref=CSSE/HIGH#

http://www.stevenson.ac.uk/courses/course-study-areas/access-and-continuing-education/

http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/access-courses/intro

As TSSF says though, if you're serious about it, don't wait for Open Days or anything like that - phone them up. The relevant folk at each uni or college will be able to explain your options within 5 minutes.

[Twiglet]

I trained as an OT at QM starting in 2001 and qualifying in 2004 (not that I've ever worked as an OT).

To get into the course you need to be interviewed. This has a big weighting, which I found out. Check out UCAS as they'll have all the entry qualifaications that you need exam wise so will the uni website (230 UCAS points under the new system).
I went into the course straight from school and didn't get the exam results they were after me to get, but I had a strong interview so they still allowed me into the course.
You, of course, will need to choose which uni to go to. If you're in Scotland there are 3 unis that run the course, QM, RGU and Glasgow Cale. Each is slightly different in how they teach (at least they were). QM is quite book based, theory. RGU is a more practical course. Cale is somewhere in the middle. All will prepare you for the future though.

I don't know if you'll be in time to apply for this coming intake, but the best thing to do is contact the uni directly. There are contact people on the websites. THe contact for QM is Andrew Muir, who was my old tutor. He's lovely, and will quite happily help you in any queries.

http://www.qmu.ac.uk/courses/UGCourse.cfm?c_id=71

You may need to do an access course for a year, but Andrew would keep you right.
The course is a honours course, which is now required by the Britich Association of Occupational Therapy.

Another thing to do is go visit an OT to ask them what they do so you can get a better idea of what the job entails. I seem to remember they really wanted applicants to have visited 2 OTs to get an idea.
If you do go visit, go with a list of a couple of questions. Also, maybe go see both an OT in both mental health and physical settings as you have to do placements in both in order to qualify. Maybe go visit an area you might be interested in working, like paeds, brain injury, etc..

A warning though. If you are in Edinburgh and want to work in Edinburgh, jobs are like gold dust. If you are wanting/willing to work outwith Edinburgh, jobs are easier to come by. However, there is massive restructure for Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) within Social Work and the NHS so in 4 years time things might be much different.

You say you're looking for a career change so i assume you will be a mature student. The course doesn't have too many school leavers as it is the type of course that they like you to have life experience for, so you wouldn't be alone, or feeling old at all.

If you want to ask me any questions, feel free to ask me, or PM me. All my friends that did the course with me are now working as OTs so I'm still in touch with the OT world.

You could also check out the BAOT/College of OT websites for more information on the career.

http://www.cot.co.uk/Homepage/

This page is very good at giving you an overview of some real OT work.

http://www.cot.co.uk/Homepage/About_Occupational_Therapy/

Best thing to do though, is get in touch with the uni you'd like to go to, and discuss with them, they are the best people to speak to as they will know best as to what they want.

[RickyS]

got a bit of an update on this folks, and thanks again to all the Hibby help you all gave me

Occupational Therapy was a non starter for a few reasons, the first being that this year is fully subscribed. as far as the entry requirements i would have needed to re-do a standard grade science subject because I only got a 4 while at school, then I would need to do an access higher then I can apply. they advised that every year they are over subscribed and my grades would be compared against others to eliminate the weak:greengrin. all in all the girl could not wait to get me off the phone.
My second choice course was Mental Health Nursing. when I called the Uni they were very helpful, the opposite of QMU to be honest. they put me in touch with Jewel & Esk who do an Access to Nursing Higher for those without the qualifications. its a years course with guaranteed entry to the Nursing course after succesful completion. I have applied a week or so ago and am waiting to hear about a September start, so fingers crossed:aok:
anyone got an idea when i should hear if I got a place?