Question about studying at Uni or similar as a mature student

[Allen]

Having been unemployed for 2 months and most of the jobs I have seen advertised require degrees or equivalent experience (which sometimes I am unable to prove) I am considering all options available to me right now.

I have looked at Open Uni and they advise you can get a student loan for fee's despite your age, and checking a student finance calculator it appears you can get assistance with maintenance as well. However, I am guessing if you are studying full time you would lose JSA since you aren't job seeking.

Does anyone know if it is possible to study full time with Open Uni (or an actual University) whilst being a mature student with no savings, no income (it's possible I could find a part time job somewhere) and no financial assistance from family members? If so, where can I go to get further information on this?

[0iD]

Nursing? I know of a couple of peeps that did this, and worked the rest of the time as a healthcare assistant.

[TheAnimus]

Does anyone know if it is possible to study full time with Open Uni (or an actual University) whilst being a mature student with no savings, no income (it's possible I could find a part time job somewhere) and no financial assistance from family members? If so, where can I go to get further information on this?

If you have an institute and course in mind, you should definitely contact them. The problem I see is for many you will have missed this year. UCAS only help so much in finding that out.

Your LEA will have details of what loans are available to you, regardless of where you study, it is your LEA who are responsible for funding it with the SLC. It costs more than £9k a year to put a student to uni, and its the LEA that pays... Except for when it isn't, if an institute gives you a grant or extra funding, it is ontop of what the LEA has coughed up.

I guess what is it you want to study and when? As I say you've missed traditional terms for this year.

[Rob_B]

Your existing skills/experience are?

[jim]

If you're living on your own, it might be possible.

Maintenance loans scale depending on household income, so if you're living with parents who earn average salaries, you tend to get very little over the minimum of £5,500. But if your household income is very low, i.e. it's just you and you're a student, it should be much bigger, with grants and possibly an additional bursary from the university. That could easily total up to £8,000 or more, plus £2,000 working 1 day per week is more than doable.

Without checking out the SLC though, it's only guesswork.

[TheAnimus]

plus £2,000 working 1 day per week is more than doable.

And to think they told me I was expensive!

[Rob_B]

And to think they told me I was expensive!

You should be in a Loreal advert...

[Allen]

OK, a little more information. I have been trying to read up on what options I have, but there doesn't seem to be one site which gives definitive answers so I really don't know what to let myself in for if I investigate this further.

I am currently unemployed, I have a few years of support behind me (desktop, server, Windows, Linux, Exchange, SQL, AD, networking, etc) and I am interested in doing a "BSc (Honours) Computing and IT" with Open University (the course has a start date in Feb). The cost is £5124 per year which will be covered by the student loan, but it all gets a bit cloudy when it comes to maintenance loans/grants, income support, etc.

I share a flat with someone I am not connected to (not a relative or partner), my parents are retired and I have no means of income.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[TheAnimus]

Why the hell are you not finding this out for yourself. It's important, this could be a pivotal moment in your life.

I say this because the funding available will depend on your very specific circumstances. These are not hard things to find out.

You should also look at local universities and what they have to offer. We're talking a bus ride here. For a decision that might well change your life. A bus ride.

You might find that grants are available for specific institutes for specific courses of study.

You should also be looking to speak to your LEA and the Job Centre advisors.

Seriously, if you want to do this, how about doing some leg work.

[jim]

I expect you will get less maintenance money for open since you can live anywhere, but you would need to check.

If I were you I would definitely go for a physical uni, expect you would have a much fuller experience.

[Allen]

Why the hell are you not finding this out for yourself. It's important, this could be a pivotal moment in your life.

I say this because the funding available will depend on your very specific circumstances. These are not hard things to find out.

You should also look at local universities and what they have to offer. We're talking a bus ride here. For a decision that might well change your life. A bus ride.

You might find that grants are available for specific institutes for specific courses of study.

You should also be looking to speak to your LEA and the Job Centre advisors.

Seriously, if you want to do this, how about doing some leg work.

Not sure why you are being so aggressive, but I will try and respond.

I asked here in case anyone in my similar circumstances had been through the same process as what I am planning. I am not asking here because I want everyone else to look up the answers for me. Before coming here, I checked multiple sites listed on the OU website but none of them gave solid answers. After spending a lot of time going through questionnaires it would say something like "you could qualify for" or "you may be entitled to". So rather than call them up and spend more hours going through the same questions I thought I would ask to see if anyone had any real experience.

Also, the reason for not going to a Uni and talking to someone about it is, if I did that, I would have to wait until Sept 2014 before I could start a course. OU courses start in Sept and Feb, so I could be starting a course in 4 months rather than waiting almost a year.

I will try and speak with someone at my LEA and next time I am in the Job Centre, thanks for the advise.

[DanceswithUnix]

One question, do you actually want to go to Uni? If you feel forced to go rather than wanting it then I imagine it will feel like a sentence by the end of three years. If it is something you always wanted to do, then go for it.

I am surprised you can't find an IT job in London though, perhaps you need to get someone to look over your CV to make it catch the eye more.

I would expect one of the recruiters on JobServe who specialise in IT placements would help you out. Getting a job is a sales thing, selling your talents, and most technical people aren't that good at that.

Good luck though, being unemployed is hard work and I found quite hard on the phone bill chasing up job agencies. I honestly wonder if they ignore emailed applications unless you phone them, I certainly found that most needed kicking into action to get any interviews.

[mikeo01]

Well I can't say for experience as I am not a mature student, but every one of my friends I know who goes to university has nothing good to say about them. I sure feel like I'm like in prison due to the fact I can't actually express my skills as they restrict it too much; too basic requirements.

In your shoes, you've got the skills so I would probably say full time is a no go; it'll be more like a very very long revision lesson as you'll know most of the material they teach; I already do in my university so I have no doubts this will all be easy stuff for you. 3 years is a long time just to drag through for a degree.

I would probably recommend open university if you were to study; my dad has done a few courses and although you pay your own way at least you can get a part time job for income. Not only that but you can work in your spare time.

In terms of computing type courses, everyone I know would of rather done additional certificates rather than full time uni. This is dependent on the university obviously; but the majority of people I know have basically said (me included) that a degree just gives you the key and nothing else (no real in-depth material). So if you can survive 3 years then OK; personally I would of not gone to uni and just done side courses, uni has dragged out long enough for me (obviously can't say for all the university). I'm in my third year and I am finally able to do in-depth work (because of my project/dissertation).

I'd probably opt for additional courses (not too expensive) and placements. If you do feel like BSc Honours is what you want then I'd go for open university (long distance learning).

This is from my experience and some of my friends, so I can't say for all

[Dareos]

Your background in computing seems varied and extensive, first couple of years at Uni or college is probably going to be a refresher course rather than anything. I'm 38 and currently studying an HND Computer Networking and Internet Technology (not information tech) which encompasses CCNA, and several Microsoft Modules 680/685 etc. This is basically to get me into 3rd year Networking at Caledonia Uni, B Eng, rather than Bsc if i can manage it, mainly due to the IEEE membership at the end of it. When i started the course i had no clue about subnetting, SQL, server maintenance etc. I had a lot of experience in messing around, playing games and connecting everything together to see if it worked. Even so, some of the classes I have to pass to get that bit of paper that says I can do this, are really really basic.

I won't offer advice on being a mature student because im based up north (that's actually up north, not just north of watford) and we don't pay fees (i did my first year) but im hardly in the same living situation as you. I know there are grants, bursaries and other means of support from Uni's but they will be different down south im sure.

What I can suggest is going to your local Job Centre and see what grants you can be offered to do courses. Lots of places offer CCNA and Microsoft training and you may find this more to your advantage. Having these certifications also gets you passes in lots of modules at Uni or college, so you could be doing a part time course and possibly still receive benefits of some kind.

Whatever you decide, best of luck in it, going back to College was one of the best decisions I have made (i work 25 hours a week, most of which is at weekends, its a rather full life I have atm) and I enjoy it immensely.

[b0redom]

+1 for vocational stuff. If you can get CCNA / MSCE / RHCE you may find you're able to find work far more easily. As has already been said though, it's odd that you can't find work in IT in London. I presume you've tarted up your CV and posted it to all the job boards, updated LinkedIn etc etc... ?

[DanceswithUnix]

Possibly wacky suggestion, have you considered going into software testing?

It seems really hard to hire software testers, I guess it isn't a line of work most people think of and most people after doing a degree want to develop not test. Again, a JobServe search in your local area might throw up some leads for that.