Good for you! You wont regret it at all. You can have the exams done closer to you - I don't have to go anywhere to sit exams and can go to the local TAFE to do them, so that is one less thing to worry about.
Thought I would butt in and say I think UNE is a fabulous uni, particularly for external students.
In regards to employment options, your best bet is to arrang a time to go and have a chat with a couple of the local principals. Sometimes there aren't many positions around for permnament / full time teaching staff, but there is a real shortage of substitute teachers. I used to have a friend who was working fulltime hours just being a releif teacher at high school level.
The employment question is really a how long is a piece of string question- especially depending on where you live. I work for the Dept of Ed in WA, I have been teaching for 7 years now, and have never really be without work- however having said that I have never had a permenant job, each year I am on an end dated contract, so come the end of the school year, I am never sure if/where I will be teaching the next year. Each state does things differently, here the schools are staffed through central office, so you put in your application for the schools/ year levels etc that you are qualified to teach, and they match you against available jobs- we are just moving into Independent Public Schools, where teachers can apply directly to and be hired at school level, rather than having to go through central staff.
There is a ranking system for placement of teachers- unplaced permenant staff, permanent staff transfering, fixed term teachers & then graduate and re entry teachers. There are alot of teachers struggling to get full time and on going employment, especially if they are not willing to go and do a country stint. I have only just gained my permenancy this year after 7 years of teaching- 2 years in the country and 5 years metro, I got my permenancy through spending 2 years in a "difficult to staff school" in the metro area.
As for qualifications- Generally High school teachers have a specialty and do a teaching degree, either a bachelor of Ed high school, with units in which ever area of study they are interested in, maths, science etc. Or do their specialty degree then a Grad Dip in Education.
Primary school Teaching is another seperate degree- a 4 year degree in teaching (in WA) this means you are qualified to teacher years 1-7
Then there is an Early Childhood Degree- also 4 years and this (once again in WA) qaulifies you to teach k-3.
Trillain, this may be a little personal so please feel free to not answer but, I have just filled out the application and I am a bit nervous as I did not complete my VCE and I have not completed (commenced not completed) any courses since leaving school, I could sit the STAT test but I am not in the position at the moment to do so, I have attached the mature age entry form so that is enough but I am curious as to whether you had completed any previous study or VCE equivelent upon entry?
(I blame it all on lack of career counselling from my school and my parents and vow to educate my children to make wiser decisions)
Last edited by DaintreeDream; September 30th, 2010 at 03:53 PM.
All I had done was complete my HSC back in 95. So to get into Uni I could do what you did - fill in the mature aged student form to justify relevant work experience etc OR I could do their Pathways course, which is a free 12 months course which is only part time, so 2 subjects a semester and the components of the course were two foundations units based in English and Maths as well as two pathways units of your choice - there is a list of subjects you can choose from and if you knew what degree you would do after the pathways course you could pick two subjects that would count towards it. So I picked the two that were part of the Bach Ed degree. The idea of the pathways course is to get you used to University study and let you get a feel for what will be expected of you during your degree. I did the pathways course instead of the mature aged entry because I felt it couldn't hurt to brush up on my writing skills and it has helped a lot because learning how to write academically is different to what was expected during school. The only requirement of the course is that you have to get an 80% pass or higher to successfully pass the course and it will guarantee you entry into your chosen course the following year. So far I am well on track to pass the pathways course and the bonus is that you get advanced standing for the two subjects you chose provided that you passed them. I think had I just filled in the mature aged form I would still have gotten in, but I think I would have floundered a bit so I'm pleased I decided to do it the way I did.
My DH enter UNE as a mature age student (at the ripe old age of 17yrs ) because he never got his TER (or whatever it was called). He had to sit the STAT test to get in back then (but this was 11yrs ago now). The STAT test wasn't that hard. There should be a free phone number where you can get in touch with the admin at UNE where they will tell you what you will need to do and point you in the right direction. The phone number should be on their website. They are generally very helpful with these sorts of questions.
Edited to take out the link (not sure if I am allowed to put it in or not).
Last edited by misty; September 30th, 2010 at 05:03 PM.
: took out the link
Thankyou Trillian and Misty. Unfortuntely the closest place for me to do the STAT is a 6 hour round trip and my DD is BF so I would have to take her for the trip and get someone to mind her while I sit the test and the applications close today (there is another one but it is on the closing date for applications).
I didn't even realise you could do a pathways course. I had been looking at doing my study through a different uni and changed my mind at the last minute as UNE offered much better services (relevent to me). Oh well, I will wait and see how my application goes I suppose, any ideas where I can find the offer dates? I know applications close on November 28th, so after that I suppose.
Daintree, did you use the online application service? If you did, go back in to the online submission and check it tomorrow and you should be able see your application and in the OFFER RESPONSE STATUS column, you should be able to click on ACCEPT to accept the offer of admission. Then you will get a letter in the mail detailing how you enroll in early November. I'm pretty sure that if you met all the requirements on the mature aged form then they should offer you a place, especially considering that you are studying distance ed. In the subject I'm doing now there are 607 external students and only around 100 internals.
Check with the uni, because there always used to be other ways you could get an application in, even if the close off date was past - not sure if this is still the case or not. They also used to do late round applications from memory and mid year applications. Basically there are the ways everyone is told about to get admitted into uni and then there are other ways (or at least there used to be).
Registered User
but, I have just filled out the application and I am a bit nervous as I did not complete my VCE and I have not completed (commenced not completed) any courses since leaving school, I could sit the STAT test but I am not in the position at the moment to do so, I have attached the mature age entry form so
that is enough but I am curious as to whether you had completed any previous study or VCE equivelent upon entry?
) because he never got his TER (or whatever it was called). He had to sit the STAT test to get in back then (but this was 11yrs ago now). The STAT test wasn't that hard. There should be a free phone number where you can get in touch with the admin at UNE where they will tell you what you will need to do and point you in the right direction. The phone number should be on their website. They are generally very helpful with these sorts of questions.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks