OU degrees/"Future proofing"

RoboCod

RoboCod

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Edit: What would you say is a good degree to "future proof" as it were? I'm thinking 10 years down the line if I leave the forces. I'm considering enrolling on a Business/Management course with the OU soon. Anything else I could consider?

Cheers
 
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Engineering most definitely. If I could go back and start again, I would certainly do engineering as it will always be needed and opens up more career doors than anything else.
 
Captain Planet said:
Edit: What would you say is a good degree to "future proof" as it were? I'm thinking 10 years down the line if I leave the forces. I'm considering enrolling on a Business/Management course with the OU soon. Anything else I could consider?

Cheers
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Having done a BSc (Hons) in Computing Science with Business Management, I'd be inclined to add something to the business element as a few friends of mine found it difficult to pin jobs down with business alone. The impression they got from employers was that business alone is a bit wishy-washy. Business & Economics, Accounting, Finance, Computing, Enterprise are all good combinations.

Just my 2 pence.
 
.Jay. said:
Having done a BSc (Hons) in Computing Science with Business Management, I'd be inclined to add something to the business element as a few friends of mine found it difficult to pin jobs down with business alone. The impression they got from employers was that business alone is a bit wishy-washy. Business & Economics, Accounting, Finance, Computing, Enterprise are all good combinations.

Just my 2 pence.
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A business degree is more regarded as a postgraduate thing - something taken to further business knowledge in a field the student already knows.

An undergraduate business degree relatively is ;building on nothing', so is somewhat more wishy washy without the proper direction. A split degree in this regard could be more USEFUL.
 
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Nitefly said:
A business degree is more regarded as a postgraduate thing - something taken to further business knowledge in a field the student already knows.

An undergraduate business degree relatively is ;building on nothing', so is somewhat more wishy washy without the proper direction. A split degree in this regard could be more useless.
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Fair point, would you then suggest your average business management degree student to take up further education into a specialised area either postgraduate or similar?
 
.Jay. said:
Fair point, would you then suggest your average business management degree student to take up further education into a specialised area either postgraduate or similar?
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Sorry I meant USEFUL at the end of my last sentence!

Not that I am in any real position to say so, but I would only really advise business as a postgraduate or mature student course.

That's not to say an undergraduate business degree is a bad thing, just that's how I think people view that type of degree.
 
If you want to do something now, that you can utilise in say 10 years, then IMO do something more academic than vocational. What that is is down to you and your specific interests - tis best to find something you enjoy.

A lot can change in 10 years - a marketing course 10 years ago wouldn't have covered social media - facebook and twitter didn't exist 10 years ago.... A language course in say Mandarin isn't going to have differed much (incidentally if I were trying to predict the future then I'd say language skills in Mandarin will likely be in demand in both the business world and within the armed forces over the next decade).
 
I think there's a stigma around business management degrees because people see management roles as something earned through merit and hard work, not something taught in a classroom.
 
Moses said:
Just do a subject you really, truly enjoy :confused:. OU's not going to be easy, if you pick something you're not 100% on, just because you think it'll be better after your time in the forces.

Or, are you saying you really, truly want to do business/management, and you're just asking what stuff to do within that?
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Business/Management interests me but then I admit I haven't had my head buried in much of the literature about course content or what to expect, I've only skimmed over. As there is a myriad of courses I was looking for peoples opinions on what they thought were good courses to consider to save me looking into pretty much everything.

An engineering course in Materials or Environment interest me now they have been mentioned as well as Mandarin being a sensible suggestion. I understand it won't be easy, I went to Uni before (mickey mouse degree), but now I have even more sense of determination to do it and I have much free time when I'm not busy with work.
 
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Probably a mixture between physics and maths. Engineering is decent, just make sure you pick the right field. I heard that civil engineers are struggling to get jobs at the moment while other fields are more prospering. Really though, a maths or a physics degree is highly respected and would do great wonders for anyone.
 
I've just started an OU Degree in Leadership and Management.

Half way through my first module, and I think the best advice I can give is.

- Really, REALLY want to do the course.
- Be really interested in what it can offer you
- Understand what you are letting your self in for, it is one hell of a commitment
- Plan how much time you think you need, then double it, double it again, and for good measure, double it again. You can then do the modules and get good scores on assignments and actually learn something from it.
- On the above, be clear with your partner when you intend to do it all. I'm regularly going to London with work, so do as much as I can on the train/coach.

I'm doing mine with a view to doing an MBA after it, I'm really lucky that work are funding my OU Degree, but just make sure you really understand what you want it to do for you.
 
As Conanius said, do a course you are interesting in NOT what you think might be wanted by employee's, the most impressive thing about an OU degree, or a decent degree is that you do it rather than what it is. Then depending on the difficulty that also says a lot, being able to finish a full on maths degree shows a level of thinking and intelligence that many other subjects don't, and maths will take you to a ridiculous number of places, largely because great maths foundation makes getting into computing easy(maths is hard, programming is fairly easy) and just about every industry has computers doing something critical these days.



If you do intend to do an OU degree, sign up for a module, ANY module RIGHT NOW. If you sign up and start a module for this jan/feb, on the current pricing and continue onwards, then you will continue paying CURRENT pricing, IE £400-500 a module, if you sign up next october, you'll be paying circa £1000 a module and £4-5k a year. So it makes a heck of a lot of financial sense to jump on board asap. You can even just do one, or two modules for a fairly lightweight year and a good chance to get back into learning and without as much stress and time needed.
 
drunkenmaster said:
As Conanius said, do a course you are interesting in NOT what you think might be wanted by employee's, the most impressive thing about an OU degree, or a decent degree is that you do it rather than what it is. Then depending on the difficulty that also says a lot, being able to finish a full on maths degree shows a level of thinking and intelligence that many other subjects don't, and maths will take you to a ridiculous number of places, largely because great maths foundation makes getting into computing easy(maths is hard, programming is fairly easy) and just about every industry has computers doing something critical these days.



If you do intend to do an OU degree, sign up for a module, ANY module RIGHT NOW. If you sign up and start a module for this jan/feb, on the current pricing and continue onwards, then you will continue paying CURRENT pricing, IE £400-500 a module, if you sign up next october, you'll be paying circa £1000 a module and £4-5k a year. So it makes a heck of a lot of financial sense to jump on board asap. You can even just do one, or two modules for a fairly lightweight year and a good chance to get back into learning and without as much stress and time needed.
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Interesting, helpful post :)
 
YOu also apparently HAVE to designate a degree which I wasn't aware of so happy to know now ;)

Basically once you're signed up and logged in with modules added you can link them to a degree, apparently the prices only stay as they are if you are doing a named degree rather than randomly doing modules. You can set your degree as an open degree anyway, meaning you can do whatever the hell you want, or you can link them to one of their set degree's in whatever.

I hadn't seen that anywhere but was mentioned in one of the forums for one module, so happy I spotted that as if I'd missed out and had to pay several thousand a year more over a technicality I'd have been pretty angry.

I'm doing a couple computing and a couple maths modules, I've been getting very good results but studying horrendously badly. IE not being motivated to do anything for a month then having 4 assignments due over a 2 week period and cramming a couple months learning into a few days before each assignment........ I don't recommend that, stupidly stressful :p

The maths is enjoyable, but I always liked maths, they seem to have got the spot on mix between making some of their answers/examples vague enough that you do your nut in trying to work something out for 15 minutes but essentially teach yourself how they did it. THat is what I consider "real" learning. Being told say the quadratic formula and just remembering it and coming up with it yourself in a series of steps while trying various things is FAR better, it teaches your mind to be think rather than remember.

The computing is far less interesting so far and I'm really considering pretty much going the mostly maths route for the rest of the degree and throwing in a couple modules of random crap I like. The general open nature of being able to learn what YOU want and dumping an area you don't like but still getting credit for work done is great. I had been to uni previously and dropped out for health and motivational reasons, I hated the degree, but I couldn't just move to other subjects and change what I was doing, it was finish that degree I basically hated and absolutely didn't enjoy, or start fresh on a completely different degree with smeg all choices.
 
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I'm a little over a 3rd of the way through an OU Business Studies degree.
I work as an IT Manager and felt that knowledge and a degree in the business side of things should compliment my "learn't in the field" skills on the technical side.
 
Regarding costs:

From memory (they sent me an email a while back) the costs are going to significantly increase at the end of this year. At the moment it's about £2500 for an entire degree. after this year it'll go up to £3000 A YEAR, unless you're already enrolled in a course.

So my advice would be if you're going to, do it soon.
 
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