hi all,

Just after a bit of advise.. Having just completed my nvq 3 I now would like to continue to further myself. I currently work as a s.e.n T.A with an autistic boy and have researched into autism and behaviour to help him in the mainstream enviroment.

I am thinking of doing a foundation degree, but I am a bit unsure as unfortunatley when I was suppose to be learning at school ( having ADHD traits myself as a child) concentrating on education was furthest from my mind, and therefore did not get very high grade levels. Would this affect my chance of getting on a course?

Also how does the foundation degree work, is it similar to the nvq 3?

Help... need to make aa decision.......

A FD is the first two thirds of a full degree, levels 1 and 2. As a mature student you can quite often get a place without any formal qualifications. You will need to have, or be prepared to develop, good essay writing skills as usually you pass modules by writing reports, essays and investigations. My FD has no observed marks at all, they are all gained by writing. Don;'t let that put you off though as tutors will give you plenty of support and let you know what they are looking for.

It is nothing like NVQ madtracie

I'ld be interested to know more about this degree. I'm currently living in Scotland but will be returning to the Yorkshire area soon. I've been studying with the OU (E111 supporting learning is primary schools) and would like to take this further but feel that the Early Years FD is not suitable for me.

Has anybody taken the E111, or for that matter any OU course and been able to credit to the FD?

How long has the course in general been running?

Any info would be greatfully received ie workload, tutor help, college attendance, school's involvement (pay(HA!) , time off) etc.

I did E111 and was credited 60 points towards my FD. They way assignments run with the FD is very different to E111 though. As to the rest, each course appears to run how the course tutor wants it to. They often write the module to fit in with info the uni has given them. School involvement, pay ect depends on what each uni asks for and how each head sees it. 2 colleagues have done FD at a different uni to me, they have had visits from lecturers and one has been paid by the school to attend lectures while the other hasn't. They have done totally different modules to me and had differing amounts of help. My head said I could have time off but he couldn't pay me as the other girl was being paid and he couldn't afford to pay us both, so I went distance to finish mine. I have had no tutor visits and school involvement has been limited to when I asked for help.
Originally I attended one Sat a month, then an extra 5 hours on a Monday were offered, then the Saturdays were taken away and it's now day time Mondays only. Doesn't suit me so I do my best at home with email support. My tutor told me I would need to dedicate 10 to 15 hours a week at home to get the work done, not including lectures. Some weeks it's more and some less, depends how well things are going and how motivated I am. You need to be able to self motivate, do independent research, no big folders of info like with E111, and pay for the course unless your school or LEA offer you some help. They will not usually pay for everything.
Hope this helps.

Thankyou Susie, that was very helpful, I'm I reading right that you no longer attend tutorials and studying mostly at home, if so which Uni are you using?

The FD will come from University of Greenwich, but am doing it through local college in Kent. Haven't been to a tutorial since Sept, but it's much harder that way, not like when I did E111 which is set up for distance learning.