Fastest route from zip to uni..

Soldato
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Kabaala said:
In your particular circle that may be true but by no means is an across the board thing. 13k i could earn in admin tbh... my missus is on just under 14k working in admin for scottish gas.

They're 14k is a start though, is what I'm saying. They're at 14k on the first rung of the ladder, and in a few years they'll be faring better financially.

I'm not saying no one should go to uni, that'd be dumb.. I'm just trying to relax anyone who can't/didn't/won't go to uni - it's not the end of the world, despite what some poeple will tell you.

Uni is a fantastic option for tons of people, all I'm saying is it's not the only option, not by far. You can earn a very decent crust through any number of methods, some of which being: Luck, Graft, Luck, Natural Talent, Luck, Enthusiasm, Arsekissing, and Luck.

Kabaala said:
Still on a whole i dont believe us to be as skilled as before.

I won't argue with that, many more unskilled people posing as skilled people, it seems. I'm young yet, but from talking to my dad and a lot of other older people, the tide is certainly changing. Seems to be a lot of people doing trades they're not actually any cop at and earning a mint at the expense of genuine hard workers who don't want to rip people off.
 
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I'd agree with that. I feel that Uni is not somewhere where our kids should think they have to go to get on in life but rather a place thats essential for some aspirations. There are some areas of expertise that absolutely require Uni and others that experience is more valuable.

I was probably hitting my posts with a brush that provided wider strokes than intended.
 
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haven't read the posts since these threads pop up too often - however, you can take your a levels in one year - could go to a private college if you can afford it to ensure intensive learning - or else college will suffice.

alternatively get onto a foundation course

i suggest you think about your career and then decide your next move. for example if you want to get into graduate it roles, then get some it experience and pro qualifications and then apply as an experienced mature student after 21.

you have messed up in the past and now each move has serious implications for you - give each option due attention. you could go to a rubbish uni with relative ease but you need to work out your aims and objectives; for example if you harbour ambitions to go to top grad schemes, more often than not you need decent a level grades and a 2.1 from a decent uni.
 
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I was exactly in the same situation as you. I came out of school with grade 3 CSEs (long time ago) so was pretty rubbish at pretty much everything. At 24 I went back to college and studied for an ONC in Electronic Engineering. I wasnt going to go to university at all but was persuaded to by one of the lecturers because I managed to get very good marks. So I took HNC maths on top, for preperation for university. I walked the ONC with distinctions and went to Bath University and got an MEng at 30, so dont be discouraged due to your age.

The odd thing was, that I came home after spending a year living in Holland and 3 months in East Germany and arrived home on the Saturday. My friend had a leaflet on the ONC Electronics course at the local college and was due to start the first day of term on Monday. I turned up on the Monday and asked if I could join up and I signed up on the first day of term.

You have the choice of the route through college or sitting a foundation course. Good luck for whatever you choose.
 
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Paramount said:
With the uni threads flying around I thought this would be good to post now. I have a problem, a problem that I've made 10x worse by myself and one which I'd do anything to go back and fix. Basically, I was very lazy at school, and I left with nothing (2 D's at AS) after 2 years in 6th form. I kinda just rode it out expecting everything to be fine, as it had been throughout the safety of school. I'm not stupid, infact I'd consider myself quite smart, I was just very distracted and had my mind on other things the whole time. After so many years of compulsory learning, I jumped at the chance to do something different and education took a back seat.

Anyway, now I'm almost 20. I've been working for the past year (when I would have been in my first year), and while having money is nice and the jobs are easy, although plain, I realise I want more. I'm limited to the jobs I can do (generally very boring, monotonous and mind numbing). I'm also craving to learn again, I want to keep my mind sharp, I can almost feel myself getting dumber each day. I'm also missing the great and invaluable experience of uni life which everyone goes on about. I always said it wasn't for me, but maybe I was misinformed and had the wrong idea. But I am so far behind now, would I be right in saying I'd have to do my 2 A-level years again? (which I wouldn't beable to start until next year now) I'm annoyed because I'll be so far behind where I should be if I had just been sensible and stuck with it, if I knew what I do now everything would be a lot different.

I really need some advice to show me what to do, give me a little guidence. Would it still be worth redoing everything to goto uni, which would be 3 years from now? Is there any faster way for me, or any other routes? Has anyone else been in the same situation? What would you recommend? Thanks for reading and any replys are greatly appreciated.
Mate it is never too late. Forget a foundation degree, get yourself on to a foundation year. I stuffed my A levels up due to many personal problems and I managed to get onto a foundation year and did really well after I sorted myself out. I am now about to start my first year at Kings College London studying Mechanical engineering. One of my mates on the foundation year managed to get on despite the fact he only had one E grade at AS level, the rest were all fails.
 
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Mohinder said:
I'm sorry, but in reality, that's rubbish. In my closest group of mates none of us have gone to uni, and two of them are earning 14k, one is earning 13k. They'll all be on a fair bit more than that in a few years, and with no uni debts. Schools try to scare you into going to uni, but you really don't need to to earn a decent crust... not if you're prepared to work, anyway. Without meaning to sound harsh, most people who go to uni do it because they want to earn good money without actually working for it.



Damn straight. Thankfully, there are many employers who still see it this way.
LOL this gentleman thinks we don't work hard at UNI.
 
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SoSolid said:
LOL this gentleman thinks we don't work hard at UNI.


The fact is his friends are on 13-4k... says it all really. I don't mean any disrespect but that is a pretty minimal pay. I have recently graduated and briefly looked at starting employment before deciding on doing a PhD. The jobs I was looking at were paying £26-35K in london, 22-27 in scotland. 13-14K is what you get for doing a PhD, sometimes more. Whats more is it is tax free.

My point- your friends may well be doing very well and certainly being on the job-ladder is good and their salary will increase. But there is already a large difference between what a graduate could earn and what your freinds are earning. This gap will only increase with time and experience. You see, without a degree you will tend to plataeu and have your promotion paths blocked and earning potential will drop.

University is not for everyone and having a degree doesn't guarantee jack ****, but it is certainly helpful for a majority of people.
 
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Dropped by West Herts college today with the intention of finding a bit more information. A helpful careers advisor set me straight up with an interview with a specialist from Access to HE. Really impressed him with my communication skills and drive to start learning again, and he straight up offered me a place in 'Modular Foundation Prog for Degrees', which he explained is basically a 'year 0'. I'll be done by June and, although I'd be guaranteed a place at Herts uni for a pass, he reckoned any uni should consider me depending on the grade I get. So I'm quite pleased, haven't signed on the dotted line yet, but the course starts on the 18th so not long to make my mind up.

The course itself is split into different subjects and topics. It seems to be basically a complete 6th-form package. The first half is composed of compulsory IT, foundation maths, research methods and communications, plus either Advanced maths, quantative techniques or cultural and media studies. The second half involved selecting 4 of the following: psychology, statistics, business studies, advanced maths 2, communications, law, or computer architecture (what is this exactly?)

How does that sound to anyone who can understand all that?
 
Wise Guy
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Not that I'm suggesting you haven't, but think quite carefully about all this, Paramount.

Bear in mind that you're letting yourself in for several more years of academic life, and even if it isn't like school, it certainly isn't a three-year (or more) party, either.

Also, bear in mind that not everybody that gets a degree gets a good or well-paid job, and not everybody that doesn't get a degree, fails to do well. A degree is not a universal panacea, and the one thing you can guarantee is that you have to earn more having got the degree to even break even, because you'll have spent three years incurring debts instead of earning money.

So I don't want to put you off if it's really what you want to do. Just be sure that it is, and that it isn't some romanticised "grass is greener" type of thing. Be sure of what you want, because it's a big commitment.


Having said that, my experience as an employer is that those that have a year (or more) of work experience before going to university generally (as a rule) are much more mature while they're there and get more out of it as a result. Furthermore, as an employer, I respect those that have done it the hard way, and realising your mistake (if indeed, it was a mistake) and taking the steps and putting in the effort to correct it, is creditable, and character-forming.

Whatever you decide to do, think it through ..... and good luck.
 
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Paramount said:
having money is nice and the jobs are easy, although plain, I realise I want more. I'm limited to the jobs I can do (generally very boring, monotonous and mind numbing). I'm also craving to learn again, I want to keep my mind sharp, I can almost feel myself getting dumber each day. I'm also missing the great and invaluable experience of uni life which everyone goes on about.

I often feel similarly, craving study, longing for the opportunity to write prose (part of the reason I post on this forum, is to give me an outlet for my urge to express myself in written form), and realising that my level of knowledge/'academic prowess' is diminishing and much lower than it was at the age of 18.

However, what makes our situation slightly different is that I did go to uni and I'm now 26. So don't be fooled into thinking that going to uni will make all these feelings disappear. I had excellent A-level/GCSE results, but kinda messed up at uni, and I've mulled over the idea of going back to do another degree a few times. But one thing I've learnt, is that life is there for living and not sitting around wondering about what else you could be doing while it passes you by. I know I'm capable of doing much more than I am now, but things are moving steadily forward, and I can see myself clawing myself up roughly to where I want to be over the next 5 years or so. Stick at it and you can make progress, just maybe not as quickly as you'd hoped as a starry eyed teenager. To be honest, 10 years ago, if you'd said to me that my lifetime salary to date would be what it is now, I'd have laughed. I assumed by my mid-20s I'd be raking in the dosh and be twice as rich. Oh well :)
 
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I had thought it through long ago, and when I make a decision I make absolutely sure its the right one. But reading that has unsettled me. I guess a part of it is grass is greener. I've been looking for a better job for almost a year, very intensly, totally unsuccessfully. I will not resign myself to a useless minimum wage dead end monkey job, I kinda already have that, and know I can do better. All I'm riding on though is GCSE's, and they don't go very far especially when other applicants most likely have better, even degrees. Although, four years is a long time, I could earn 40k in that time, as opposed to minus 5k+ or however much it'd cost.

Another part of me wants to fix a mistake. I've embedded it into me that the decisions I made at school were the worse I've ever made and will make for many more years, I'm sure of it. I want to prove to myself and others that I am capable of producing when I try. I've got friends on 1st, 2nd and 3rd years and the positive stories and advice they have offered has far outweighed the bad. I think I'd really enjoy the uni experience, not just the raveing but how it develops you as a person as well.
 
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Well, don't let my post dissuade you from going if you are sure it is what you want to do. It wasn't intended to put you off looking for a route into uni, more a statement not to necessarily give up hope of succeeding if you were not to go down that route. If you've spent a year intensively searching for a better job, then you have probably arrived at the right conclusion.

Even if you don't actually go to uni, A-levels are still worth having and they can open the door to many professions for you (e.g. accountancy, or whatever takes your interest). Even some graduate employers will still look at a-level results. If it were me I'd look at going to college while working part time to save up some cash for uni. You will be used to the work ethic by now and should be able to cope with this.

However, it looks like you've researched foundation courses (something I must confess I know little about) and this may well be the fastest and best route into uni.
 
Wise Guy
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HangTime said:
Well, don't let my post dissuade you from going if you are sure it is what you want to do. It wasn't intended to put you off looking for a route into uni,....
I might be reading it wrong, but I suspect it was my post that "unsettled" Paramount.

If so, good .... providing it unsettled you (Paramount) in the right way. It can be a positive thing to reevaluate objectives, and motives.

I agree, that university can be a character-forming experience. But it isn't for everybody. Just because friends are enjoying it doesn't mean you will .... nor that you won't. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I must have to have gone back again .... twice. So don't for an instant think I'm trying to put you off. I weighed up the fact that uni time was non-earning time, and did it anyway, and don't regret an instant of it. But while I had friends that thoroughly enjoyed it, I also had friends that did a year and then left, and one friend that did three years only to louse up the final one and end up with no degree. I might be wrong, but I believe the reason was that his heart wasn't in it.

One thing to consider is whether you want to go because there's something you really want to do (to study), or because there's some objective you want to achieve (doctor, lawyer, etc) for which a degree is a necessary stepping stone. Or is it just that friends are enjoying it?

I don't want to put you off, Paramount. I'm a firm supporter of further education. All I'm saying is that it isn't for everyone, and it isn't the only way. If you're doing it because it's want you really want, then go for it. Just don't drift into it because nothing else seems to be working out. It isn't the only way forward.
 
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