BTEC Computer Studies rant..

edscdk

edscdk

edscdk

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17 Jul 2008
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my lad is doing this course a lot of the courseware is jsut total rubbish.. (btec level 3 full time 2 year course)

the final straw is the fact they dropped the networking part of the course and replaced it with a Games Design module.

Can the collage do drop such a useful module and replace it with their own rubbish?

Is the courseware not reviewed? is there no standard?

They have no books only a few a4 handouts with nothing more than a few lines of info on for them to look up more info on on wikipedia... the lecturer does not know anything about IT and jsut tells them off for asking questions saying 'you are level 3 students you should be able to find the information yourself'
 
I don't think it's just that college. Benjo on these forums did a BTEC in computing and he did do the networking but he started his 3 years ago, when we left not september gone but last year we were told that the BTEC was going to change to include Game Design, I'm not sure if that was intended to replace the networking or in addition to, but that's obvious in your case.
 
In my view this is all about them running it as a profit making course. Networking is farm, far, far more valuable to the average student. But it's not that interesting for most people who would be attracted to a course which involved an element of games study.

So if they replace 'boring' networking with 'sexy' games modules then students are more likely to want to go there.

It's a very short term decision in my view and doesn't help the student at all. Very few will go into a game related career.
 
Im doing a BTEC national in ICT. I did the first diploma last year. TBH, ide rather do networking then games design as im more likely to want to do networking
 
Most people want to do game design, its more appleasing, than thinking oh god i'mm studying networking.

But when you think about it you don't wnat game design you want networking, but who at 16 really wants to go networking. Colleges put on teh courses that pull in the people. They get paid per student that gets put on roll.

If you wanted to do it properly, your son would be doing his cisco exams at 16 and working towards MCSE's, yes it will cost you possibly a good 4-10k but hes gunna be better trained going into the market at around 18, than any 22/23 year old uni leaver.

I'm 21, did teh training, worked 2 and half years in a school, just started my first 'proper' IT job and experience is awsome going to over power a degree.
 
Frankly the computer game design module should replace the introduction to programming module if anything. and that is also a dumb idea.

I did a BETC in Electronics, Communications and IT, and looking back on it, it was an excellent course for introducing a Teenager to the above 3 topics.

It included
Electronics Theory
Microelectronics Theory
Networking
Programing
Computer installation and Repair
A bit of business training (well report writing)

and a tonne of other stuff.

You should complain to the head of the course and the school governors. There is no place for game design at this point in a students studies. I'm hesitant to recommend it as at undergraduate level tbh
 
hah, I did that course... only one decent teacher there. Tell him to go to student services and complain, specially if he signed up to do networking and have suddenly changed it to game design...

i'd def look into what waso dude was talking about
 
waso_dude said:
I'm 21, did teh training, worked 2 and half years in a school, just started my first 'proper' IT job and experience is awsome going to over power a degree.
Click to expand...

Not always. A large number of decent payng jobs will have a degree as a pre-requisite, then they'll start looking at experience.
 
When I'm looking for technical IT staff, my first demand is that they have some experience in computer game design.

Who needs to understand the protocol which underpins the vast majority of the internet anyway?
 
Basher said:
Not always. A large number of decent payng jobs will have a degree as a pre-requisite, then they'll start looking at experience.
Click to expand...

Yep a degree is top notch basic training, ive got a HNC computing and im just topping off by getting a Bsc hon's in computing, tbh the HNC/HND and preceeding courses are just steps up from whatever level you start at along the way to a degree if you did not do great in GCSE's or 'A' levels.
 
Yamahahahahaha said:
When I'm looking for technical IT staff, my first demand is that they have some experience in computer game design.

Who needs to understand the protocol which underpins the vast majority of the internet anyway?
Click to expand...

well you do want them to be writing their own mod scripts on your company time don't you?, don't you?..............................;)
 
Basher said:
Not always. A large number of decent payng jobs will have a degree as a pre-requisite, then they'll start looking at experience.
Click to expand...

I've been working in IT since 1993 and you're right a lot of jobs *say* that a degree is a prerequisite. I've always just applied anyway and let my CV do the talking. In about 16 years and about 10 different contracts/jobs I've not been turned down once for not having a degree despite it being on most of the pre-reqs.
 
Wicksta said:
I've been working in IT since 1993 and you're right a lot of jobs *say* that a degree is a prerequisite. I've always just applied anyway and let my CV do the talking. In about 16 years and about 10 different contracts/jobs I've not been turned down once for not having a degree despite it being on most of the pre-reqs.
Click to expand...

The problem is when 3rd party consultants sift as the initial stages. The poorer consultancies will blindly dismiss any that do not have the pre-requisities irrelevant of any additional experience evidenced.
 
I did a btec it from 2004-2006, tbh a lot of the work was spoon fed, mind we didn't have any games design module.

However they were cutting down the modules from 18 to 12 for us because apparently people couldn't handle a full nation diploma 18 module course

So we got a diluted diploma which ended up being a national certificate.

Other than Alevel maths/science/english... what is the point of college? You can pretty much do anything doing core subjects at higher levels
 
Basher said:
The problem is when 3rd party consultants sift as the initial stages. The poorer consultancies will blindly dismiss any that do not have the pre-requisities irrelevant of any additional experience evidenced.
Click to expand...

I've never found that to be the case and pretty much every job I've had has been via an agency. They are normally experienced enough to recognise a good CV and they want the money by getting you in there!
 
lemonkettaz said:
I did a btec it from 2004-2006, tbh a lot of the work was spoon fed, mind we didn't have any games design module.

However they were cutting down the modules from 18 to 12 for us because apparently people couldn't handle a full nation diploma 18 module course

So we got a diluted diploma which ended up being a national certificate.

Other than Alevel maths/science/english... what is the point of college? You can pretty much do anything doing core subjects at higher levels
Click to expand...
I was shocked with the amount of out of date/irrelevent stuff we had to do when I took the Btec Computer Studies. having said that I would go back and take it again just to stick two fingers up at the teachers who said I couldn't.
 
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