Further and Higher Education

Note: This post got a bit long. If you don't understand the stuff about finance, don't worry. I don't and no one else seems to either.

I know I have mentioned over the past two years that I have been at college, but I'm not sure if I actually said what I was doing. For those interested, I did a BTEC National Certificate in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and an NVQ level 2 in Performing Engineering Operations.

I'm not sure what my overall grade is as I havn't got my certificates yet, but I know I did pass the NVQ, and in the National Certificate I got nine distictions, one merit and two passes.

It was an interesting course, especially since the teachers (especially the course leader) were all very knowledgable about computers and other subjects, as well as the ones they were teaching. But out of the thirteen people who started the course, only six did the second year and finished, so we ended up joining the part time group for most lessons, who were a) a bit unenthusiastic and b) a little thick :D. These were mostly people who were on apprenticeships who got paid and seemed to do nothing but complain about the staff who I found to be very good teachers and good sources of information :rolleyes:.

The only issues I had with this second year, is that all the electronics/maths stuff was taught during lessons (which was good) but no one seemed to teach anything about motors. One assignment about motors/generators was quite big and we wern't taught anything at all (most of these lessons, when I didn't go to the library or do other work, I just sat there staring into space). I only managed to pass it well after the deadline by spending about 30 minutes rewriting someone elses assignment in my own words and photocopying his (copied and pasted) diagrams.

And in the section on PID control (which was also not taught), I had no idea what any of the stuff I found on the internet meant and hence could not write anything, and didn't have anyone elses assignment to copy. It was only on the last day that i found out that we are not actually supposed to understand or make sense of any of it (we are just supposed to be aware of it) so I passed the assignment by copying and pasting the most relavent paragraphs I could find on the internet (and stated where it came from, to avoid being done for plageurism).

I do wish someone had told me that it was acceptable to just copy and paste loads of stuff off the internet earlier as then i wouldn't have been sat wondering how I am supposed to do an assignment if I don't understand the subject. Copying and pasting the entire work is what people in college and school have spent the last several years telling us not to do.

It is for the aforementioned reasons that I expect the part time Higher National Certificate that I have just enrolled on will probably be pretty boring, and that I will be spending a lot of time in the library finding stuff out for myself, rather than during lessons.

The problem I currently have with the HNC is that I have paid £810 for it. Grants are avaliable, but I asked 'Student Advisory Services' at college on the telephone if I would have to pay at the time of enrolling, and he said yes, unless I am getting a loan (which i am not). Hence I paid with a cashiers cheque. Now that the relevant government departments have sent me the forms I requested over the telephone to apply for the grants, it states that grants are paid directly to the college.

On the enrollment form there was a question that asked whether the fees would be paid by a) Myself, b) My Employer, or c) Student Loans Company.

Student Loans Company implies that you are having a loan. The grant documents are branded with Student Finance England, (who used to be called Student Finance Direct) and appears to be part of the Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills, though the forms were sent to me by the Department for Childrens, Schools and Families. The guidance notes do mention a 'Student Loans Company', but who they are, I have no idea.

I expect I am going to be in for quite a bit more confusion now. It was bad enough when I didn't know what grants were avaliable, and decided to follow the advice in the prospectus, contact Student Services for more information. I wrote to them asking about finance, and a week later, the postman dropped a prospectus and a letter through the letter box, stating 'Please find enclosed the information you requested' :blink:.

So whether I will be able to get any grant now, I do not know. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if anyone at college/government would make sense of the above and find out whether I can get a grant. If I did, and it was paid directly to college, college would have to give me a refund, unless they would decide to just see my £810 cheque as a generous donation. If that is the case, I am not going to any effort to fill forms in.