Anyone else doing foundation degree at a college and feel conned?

[Vanquish-Storm]

They're for people with no A-level's or the thicko's that did so badly at A-level they need to do a foundation "degree" to get into university.

No offense intended Mike!

Your thinking foundation "year" i think.

We do near enough the same as what is on the Uni course (it is actualy work set by the Uni) If you finish after the two years you just get a foundation degree or if you go on and do a third year you get the full degree, as you would if you had done all three years at the uni.

Its a cheaper way of getting the degree

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Maths is certainly not pointless rubbish, neither is C & Java.

 

[MotherMayI]

Hi all,

I'm just after some other opinions on the quality of degree education at colleges. I took a foundation degree in computer networking and currently I feel conned for the amount of money borrowed to what I've actually learned.

Such fine examples include

• Lecturers that don't even bother to turn up and with no warning
• Taking your pulse rate to put it into an excel spreadsheet and compare to sports students
• Learning trig and other pointless maths stuff
• Learning C and Java

I thought the degree would be network installations, configurations and other things to enable me to either one day get a job in the field or something similar.

All it seems to me is that we have lecturers that don't want to be there, and are being taught pointless rubbish when they should be devoting more time to the actual course material.

Anyone else have the same going on, or did I just choose a bad place?

Thanks

I did a foundation degree, and an access course, both at City College in Brighton. My experience was exactly the same as yours seems to be, but that college is known to be a joke (at least locally).

If I was you, I'd just see it as a stepping stone to a higher qualification. In reality, its not worth squat on its own really.

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

I did a foundation degree, and an access course, both at City College in Brighton. My experience was exactly the same as yours seems to be, but that college is known to be a joke (at least locally).

If I was you, I'd just see it as a stepping stone to a higher qualification. In reality, its not worth squat on its own really.

Why is a foundation degree worth squat?

 

[K1LLSW1TCH]

If they're messing you around and complaining doesn't do anything then I'd leave the course before you rack up any more debt. If you know what career you want to look into then why don't you ring around a few of the companies and ask to speak to someone who can point you in the right direction. I don't know whether it's too late to apply to universities through UCAS as they have so many different rules but it may be worth just taking the rest of the year out to get a job or something and then looking at going to a proper university and having the whole experience on top of a worthwhile degree.

 

[Azraeluk]

Literacy and Numeracy are now required as the "minimum core" on any course at level 3 or above.

You have to remember while you may have a good grasp of maths, others in group may not so its all about getting everyone to the same level. So everyone can achieve there final aim, the course isn't just tailored to suit you personal needs its designed to cover a range of needs for a ranger of learners.

I teach a level 2 qual which includes A+ and MCDST and I get all my students to pass a Maths and English diagnostic before I accept them onto the course.

Being honest if you're paying the amount you've stated and you're not fussed for doing the extra stuff and taking in everything they want to offer you should have gone to a "industry trainer" like Remarc and just done the CCNA for under 2k and have it done and dusted in 8 days.

I think doing that course would help you appreciate why your college is bundling all the extra "fluff" in.

 

[dowie]

I teach a level 2 qual which includes A+ and MCDST and I get all my students to pass a Maths and English diagnostic before I accept them onto the course.

Being honest if your (you're) paying the amount you've stated and your (you're) [...]

I hope you don't mark the "English diagnostic" too.

 

[Azraeluk]

Nope its an electronic test.

I myself suffer with dyslexia and English isnt my own personal strong point. Why in a thread about a Uni/College course do you feel the need to pull somebodies sentence construction down?

 

[dowie]

You state in a post that you teach XYZ course and that basic numeracy and literacy is tested before you let people take your course. You then make some basic literacy errors within the same post.

I just thought it was funny, I wasn't being too serious btw..

 

[Lowe]

Used to build and test the speakers

Anything from the littlens to the big mahoosive ones they do Mb2's abd BB5's etc

Different anyway

Cool, im guessing that's why they had that job up for grabs recently then?

wouldn't mind dropping you an email sometime if that's ok?

Andrew.lowe at gmail.com

 

[Delvis]

Cool, im guessing that's why they had that job up for grabs recently then?

wouldn't mind dropping you an email sometime if that's ok?

Andrew.lowe at gmail.com

Can do dude it's entirely up to you

Maybe, think hte production line might have picked up a bit since the launch of some of the new lines they were producing while I was there

 

[MajorMaccas]

Literacy and Numeracy are now required as the "minimum core" on any course at level 3 or above.

You have to remember while you may have a good grasp of maths, others in group may not so its all about getting everyone to the same level. So everyone can achieve there final aim, the course isn't just tailored to suit you personal needs its designed to cover a range of needs for a ranger of learners.

I teach a level 2 qual which includes A+ and MCDST and I get all my students to pass a Maths and English diagnostic before I accept them onto the course.

Being honest if you're paying the amount you've stated and you're not fussed for doing the extra stuff and taking in everything they want to offer you should have gone to a "industry trainer" like Remarc and just done the CCNA for under 2k and have it done and dusted in 8 days.

I think doing that course would help you appreciate why your college is bundling all the extra "fluff" in.

I hope you don't mark the "English diagnostic" too.

Nope its an electronic test.

I myself suffer with dyslexia and English isnt my own personal strong point. Why in a thread about a Uni/College course do you feel the need to pull somebodies sentence construction down?

You state in a post that you teach XYZ course and that basic numeracy and literacy is tested before you let people take your course. You then make some basic literacy errors within the same post.

I just thought it was funny, I wasn't being too serious btw..

I giggled at the irony too And you can't blame dyslexia for your apostrophe errors, though if unsure its always better to leave them out than put them in; in my staff canteen there was a sign saying "You're server for today is: James"

On the VARK test I did for college ages ago (literacy + numeracy, 24 questions on each) I got all 48 correct, and the test administrator was stunned and said he'd never seen that before, to which I was stunned, since they're stupidly easy, multiple choice questions. :O

I did find you came across with an inquisitorially strict judgement of candidate's literacy + numeracy abilities, yet hypocritical because of your own (pretty basic) mistakes.