Quitting college after HNC Engineering

[killa]

Now in my second year of this HNC course for mechanical engineering, I am due to finish around end of June.
The intention at the beginning of all this was for me to complete my HND, this I imagine means some more money as I am qualified. The issue I have is with the college though, it’s been awful. At the beginning of the course, three out of the four teachers were hard to understand, English was a struggle for them and it’s not like there is a shortage of teachers with no jobs. One guy was fired, he was so clueless he turned up again after he was told!
Our first maths teacher was hard to understand, this is my weaker subject so something I was NOT happy about…our hydraulics teacher is a lazy fuck who literally hands out assignments and power point presentation work for us to answer questions on, whilst he sits there doing something on the computer.
There have been a number of teacher changes over the two years and at this level of learning, it’s not a welcome change.
The list goes on when it comes to the disorganised, confusing structure of this whole thing. I feel I’ve had to jump through many hoops to get this far and it’s causing unnecessary stress.

Since the beginning of the course (which is day release Thursday) we had two options. If you want to finish the HNC only, stay till 4:30pm. If you want to continue onto HND level, stay till 8pm and do the extra two modules of HND level. This means that the following year will only take a year and you’ll achieve a HND level certificate. This sounded great, it means that you stay later but the course is overall shorter. Well, last week we were told that I may or may not carrying on for 18 months now, regardless of these two modules. The reason? Well we haven’t been told but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the fact our new lecturer for the last two modules (been there for about 3-4 weeks) has been told “Just get them through”. He let this slip when I ribbed him about the fact we have 4 assignments to complete and fvck all teaching or lesson structure.
He called this ‘guided learning’ some bullshit about that at this level, you are told less so you research yourself…well this is just pure bullsh*t and not how the course was running beforehand, it’s a joke.

This was on Thursday and I’m meant to be deciding now if I’m staying on for another 12 (possibly 18 if this rumour is correct) for these mongs and I’m not sure I can cope with it.
I’m 30 this year and obviously disappointed, I feel disappointed with myself…I know my Dad isn’t happy but he does understand they are mucking me about.
I do want the HND and yes I could start somewhere else but that’s for two years and I’m not even sure if I want to continue down this route, the passion has been quashed somewhat, my drive has been slowed.
I want to know from others opinions how this sounds. College has caused me unnecessary stress, I do really dislike going now, not knowing if I’m actually going to learn anything. I’m contracted to stay 12 months after college finishes before I could leave for somewhere else (or else I pay all fee’s)…I don’t mind that but if I stay in college it won’t be until 2016 that I could go do something else.
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Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
Bike:- Yamaha TRX850 | Killas Biking History | Killas Gaming History | Killas autmotive history

[fatpies]

TBH the higher the educational level the more independent learning there is supposed to be. College is level 3-4.

However you're right and wrong about teachers.

There are some bad'uns esp since the government reduced the entry requirements so people no longer need PGCE/ DTTLS/ PGDE they can get in via PTTLS (one month course 0% fail rate).

But there is an employment problem, 2011s grads only about 25% got jobs, and most couldn't complete the NQT year.

The bigger problem is colleges are corporations now and for profit.... which means bad but cheap teachers are hired above good expensive ones, good experienced ones.


Anyway...


Myself I would make noises to the head of dept about leaving, colleges are scared of people leaving, it cuts the government funding pro-rata. Also maybe make noises about suing, ok I hate suing but since FE colleges are companies now you're a customer.

Also I'd check other colleges and see if you can switch and do a transfer of credits. If the exam boards are the same then there is little problem.



Also how much are the fees if you have to pay them back? A couple of colleges charge about £900 for a course with the government top up of about £3800.

Course make sure you're not on a churn course.

A churn course as identified by the wolf report exists to boost the ranking and funding of the college, and it is NOT beneficial in any way shape or form to the learner. You can identify churn courses by low % rates of failure (like 0%) and outdated knowledge and bad uncurrent teachers.

Its pretty corrupt tbh working for the post Easter period I was told nudge nudge wink wink not to fail my students even though some of them had trouble outsmarting a banana.
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"It's easy to attack and destroy an act of creation. It's a lot more difficult to perform one"

[killa]

[Sload]

I think we discussed similar on a different thread ages ago? But regardless that sounds piss poor.
I finished my HNC last year and if I had have been granted assistance I would have been able to do the HND in one year so I would have finished that this year. Alas I couldn't get the help with my employer being in big financial trouble and now it looks like my employer is going tits up anyway.

They have now changed the structure of the whole thing So regardless of the fact I have ten units, I would still have to waste two years of my life to do only six units.

I think if I get the opportunity I will just go for a foundation degree into uni then go for a degree to finish. This is compounded for me personally by my commute to Doncaster from Coventry every week when I have a reasonable uni within walking distance.

As to my lecturers, only three were poor, the rest were good and one was excellent, he also retired last year which is a shame. The thing I found with the maths specifically was that there was so much to cram into the lessons to achieve the sylabus. Although the tutor I had was good, if you didnt 'get' it he would only have a limited time to try to help you before he had to move on.
A few struggled and maths is really not my forte but I was able to educate myself outside of the classroom which seriously helped and in turn I ended up helping a few class mates here and there. This was also the first time I upped my grade in maths which felt good

As to losing your passion, well where do you actually want to take it? What do you want to be when you grow up then?
Technically I am a little overqualified for my position but I found that its a nice addition and opens a few more doors with job hunting.
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Honda Varadero >> Triumph Speed Four >> Honda CBR1100xx

[Aff]

In a very similar situation, doing day release from workk for a BND (apprenticeship) and eventually a HND though a college. First year was very good, high(ish) quality of teachers and support, and overall went very smoothly. The next year, their main supporting employer cut anlot of their funding to engineering and as a result I had 1 lecturer from half 8 in the morning till 8 at night.

On top of that, I had possibly the worst teacher I have ever met, completely disinterested, unless moaning about the government or how successful his failed business used to be.

When asked if I wanted to carry on to HND I declined and instead signed up to a OU course which I hope will suit my learning style much more.

Also employers (well mine at least) seem to like that fact that you can organise yourself enough to complete an OU degree while at work, just being enrolled has opened up doorways, as they treat working towards a degree almost as is you already have one.
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[fatpies]

[Rogerborg]

[Sload]

[tatters]

[Kradmelder]

[UnknownStuntm...]

I can't offer any direct advice, but I have been through a similar experience with HNC / D and I remember this feeling well.

You're experiencing something you haven't before; you're looking for value for money from a learning environment, while the environment is set up to milk its 'customers' and get them out the door as soon as possible. Think about when you were at college as a teenager - you wouldn't have given any real care to the quality of the teaching. But now, you're constantly assessing it and questioning. Probably not what some of these guys 'teaching' are used to...

It's entirely possible there are some lecturers (maybe not actually yours, but still within the faculty) who sympathise and understand you are hungry to learn things and would give you a better idea how to voice your frustration to a place that would get results.

Independent learning is only as good as the qualification it sets you up for, and of course you can only aim for this qualification and standard with guidance from the people who will be grading; you either need a personal tutor or *something*.

When you've got the qualification at the end of all this, you'll be extremely proud you stuck at it and dug deep.

[tatters]

[Kradmelder]

[syl]

[Rogerborg]

[Kradmelder]

[killa]

Whoa, ok, I’ve learned quite a bit here and obviously I should have used my own initiative and read up a bit more.
I feel like a fool at times. I was trying to be the good employee and undertake more education, I’ve had a stream of bad teachers…even in secondary…I’ve struggled at certain subjects since.
My ONC was so different to this course, the lecturers were the old school, they knew the subject very well and the teaching was firm but fair.
It sounds like the reasons you guys have stated further up this thread is the reason why since I’ve come back to college, things have gone downhill. The older guys have nearly all but gone, replaced with people who really aren’t cut out for the job.

[Fawbish]

[fatpies]

[UnknownStuntm...]

[ZRX61]

[Fawbish]

[drzsta]

Sorry for a slight thread jack but has anybody here completed a HNC in Electrical Engineering? I'm looking to do it part-time however all I have is the relevant C&G + NVQ from my apprenticeship.


I'm just worried that the Maths may be too mucho I start with. Although I am willing to put the effort in if someone can steer me in the right direction.

[Aff]

[Sload]