Adult Learners and College ??

[Morado]

Hi I'm hoping (get on to this in a sec lol) to start college in sept ill be 29 and classed as a mature student lol (don't feel it ) wondered if anyone found it hard to become a student again or had problems getting on a course

reason i ask is I'm all set to do this course ( NVQ2 leading to NVQ3 Nail tech)and have started sorting out my time as i help run a busy business and looking in to child care ect ,i started of after deciding i want to go ahead with it by calling my chosen college for some advice i spoke to an assessor in the beauty dept who was lovely and she gave me all the info on the correct course for me and that ill have no problem getting on the course ,its 17 hours a week and aimed at adult learners and school leavers,it also states this on the website so after her advice i put my application in :green::green:, got my confirmation threw the post and was waiting on my apt for the workshop

only i got an email from the head of admissions saying i was to old to apply for the course i wanted as it was full time ??? and aimed at school leavers ,so i again rang up the beauty dept and spoke to another person who was as confused as me as it is part time they only offer that course part time as its aimed at school leavers that may have jobs or adult learners with kids and that this last year they had a 60 year old on the course ,she told me not to worry and advised i call this person who emailed me to explain this and gave me the head of dept's name to refer her to if she still did not understand that its open to all ages,

i have done this but the person had just left lol just my luck .I'm now sat here worrying lol as i cant call till tomorrow to try get this sorted although have spoke about it with someone else in admissions and she thinks its just a bit of confusion ( but this is the head of admissions and if she has got this wrong how many others have been told this info by her ,that just decided to leave it) and wanted to know if anyone else had problems as an adult learner getting on at college.

 

[dolly666]

I share your same frustrations.For 3 years i have tried to get a place at college to do beauty therapy only to get told its too early to apply so i ring back when i was told they were taking admissions ,then they told me the course was full and this year they told me im too old and they offer places to school leavers first and i may get a place if anyone drops out,so i have decided to leave it.
But dont give up go down there and stand your ground obviously there a person who doesnt know their job.

 

[bronzebrunette]

is there maybe another college you could do the same course with and look into that?? i had a similar experience to dolly666 - when i applied for hairdressing lvl1 i was told that they were only accepting school leavers and that i should apply for lvl2, applied for lvl2 and was told to apply for lvl1 as i had no experience!! they then told me the course was full and had been since april (the course started aug and i applied in may?!) so they said to apply for jan start which i did, and due to the high number of applicants had to submit an essay!! along with my app and i still didnt get a place!! i ended up applying to a different college that was offering hairdressing as a jan start and got a place and started the course about 6 wks after applying after all that hassle with the other college!! i do have to travel a fair bit but i really wanted to take the course and really didnt want to wait another year!

 

[Morado]

Update lol

I finally got hold of lady at admissions who was soooo rude. and told me i was to old and even though i explained its on the adult learners page on the website she just said she had to check that but after explaining the dept i wanted had said there was no problem she said if they had no problem although its not what they allow she would send me out an interview taster day !!!.

I then rang up the head of dept for beauty who was confused as they don't usually allow over 24s on the course?, but would check and find out for me what exactly happened as i explained id been told by the course tutor to apply for it and she was well aware of my age ,was told she would call back that day she did but missed me , but said she would call again that day but no call ,so i called them the next day but she was away so i sent her an email ,As understand she is busy and did not want to keep calling.

Got the reply and an interview date ( although I'm away that day :irked: lol)

But now I'm left worrying ill go for the interview as they just wanted to shut me up as iv kicked up a fuss:irked:, and there will conveniently be no places left !!. If id just had the interview and never had this confusion id be non the wiser if id not got a place but now just feel I'm not going to get in anyway.

part of my reply was this

" I spoke to student services and it seems that many programmes
within the college do not take students over a certain age onto some programmes.
This is due to Government cuts in funding. Student services are also aware that
a lot of mature students do not want to be in with 16 year olds so they tend to
point them in the direction of courses that tend to have similar age ranges in.
I have clarified with student services that we do not have an issue with mature
students on this particular course."


I will point out in no way was the person who emailed me pointing me in the right direction she spoke to me as if i should of known i was to old ( although i was acting on what id been advised was the right course for me lol and im 29 !!) and did not once explain anything about any other courses.

Anyway thank you for the replies iv just applied to another course that 100% doesn't take age in to account, but there course is not the same and i may have to do beauty for a year to then go on to specialise in nail services and make up rather than the nvq 2 / 3 course i really want.

 

[Chameleon]

Hello there and welcome to salon geek:hug:

Some colleges will only take 16-19,others do in fact accept mature students...they class as over 19 mature would you believe....LOL

Some colleges have had funding cuts,others are very willing.I think the college has left you bewildrede and i am not surprised.They should have had a definate clear cut answer to mature students,and it can leave a bitter after taste of a bad wine sometimes:lol:

as for being your age you are never too old....learning is a life long learning experience.i took beauty therapy nearly 10 years ago,and although i no longer practise it from day to day it is still something i never regretted taking.I too was a mature student aswell so i can empathise.

You will find it absolutely imperative though that the college training you recieve is a foundation to the skills that you can learn after training.the beauty industry is an ever growing industry and if you have the guts to do it you can captivate the market that is out there.

From one mature student to another good luck....and use the site here....you will find some very special people who will be only too willing to help:hug:

 

[Susie H]

Great thread, you and others have put into words why, I shy away from the collage that is only 5 minutes away from me.
I'll be 47 this year and just can't face the thought of being treated like a child. Because that's how I see the attitude of some of the staff. So it's going to cost me £1000 to do the courses I want to an acceptable industry certificated standard. Our collage doesn't even offer part time courses for nvq beauty. It drives me nuts. I'd much prefer to do a collage course and save my money for the extra courses I want.
Good luck with it all hun.
It sounds like the lectures are alright, you just have to get past the addmin peeps