So i have been wanting to study and work with trees a good few years but it took till a couple of years ago to make the change. Initially i approached my local agricultural college in the september of 2009 just missing out on enrolling on a national diploma arb course, so i enrolled for the following year. Over the summer before i started the college rang me up and offered me a place on their new foundation degree course, now i didn't know anything of this course when i first enrolled but later that month went for an interview for it and was accepted. Now knowing what i know i should have never been put onto that course. I was told i would be more suited to the foundation degree because i had previously studied a BA Hons degree (in something worlds apart.) The course was made out to sound amazing, a smaller class of pupils mostly older than the youngsters on other courses, one day of practical and one day of theory rest of the week would be a work placement. Funding had also been sorted for 10 students to do the course for free and i had been chose, absolutely hellish! I had to stress the point at my interview that i was much more interested in the practical side of things, climbing, saws, machinery, gaining tickets, and was told i would get it all!!!
Quote: 'You will leave here with six and a half grands worth of tickets, all for free'
So september 2010 comes first day at college, so excited cant sit still!
And boooom within 5 minutes of being sat in this classroom this 30 stone beast hands out some paper to everyone with the course fees £1411.00 for each year of the two year course, never seen so many faces in a room turn inside out (no funding for me because i already had a degree) and the beast laughed in my face. So the first part of course being for free was bullsh"t, well okay nothing is perfect even though i have just left my full time job for this with barely any savings chin up find the money somehow. For about two months course was going alright but i could tell instantly that the college was on its arse a bit, nothing organised, no facilities, plenty of blagging.
I was struggling with the work a bit, even though i had already studied at degree level (art based stuff) they must have thought i just sat reading plant biology books whilst i was on the bog at home. I could see that this course was not ideal for myself and more so for people who already had experience in the field or who had studied similar subjects at a lower level. Am i right?
Anyways shocker number 2 came just before christmas when we were told that the legislation for the foundation degree had not came through and the course had to be made into a HND, WTF? Which meant no real change with our theory work but no practical work at all. A few of us said we would have to leave the course if that was the case, so they sh"t themselves and promised us our tickets, so we agreed to stay. The rest of 2011 up until now has been rock hard assignments, well rock hard for someone who didn't know the difference between a beech and an ash a year ago. No practical work has been undertaken at at all, (but i do go and climb out of college with a friend which has kept spirits high) we have done 1 ticket PA1, with no evidence or proof that i have passed it.
Its now the end of the year £1411.00 still to pay, assignments to still hand in, supposedly doing PA 6 and CS 30 in two weeks time but i think that is just more bullsh"t.
Stuck between a rock and hard place at moment, dont know whether to ride it out and see how next year goes, but i have a feeling not much is going to improve and i am going to end up paying course fees and for tickets elsewhere.
Do i move to another college, or just put my money and time into tickets and forget about college for now?
If you can be arsed to have read this let me know what you think and advice would help, my pals have all drank about 10 pints by the time i get to the end of this.
