Either your comment is a joke, or Oh no an ignorant labour supporting parasite

With you 100% there.

Regards
Flea

Not quite!

Think this may be a wind up,

open.edu/ope…n-0

I wonder why they didn't ban it back in 2010, moreover in 2015 when they were governing solo.

​That's probably due to the excellent commie teaching our universities dish out to people.

​My OU fees quadrupled so I had to stop studying my degree

Are you serious? You want him to list the whole 1000 courses?

Getting an education and being the first in my family to have a degree gave me confidence I never had before. My course gave me the ability to see problems from varying angles that I never would have been able to work out without the teaching and practice they forced you to do in order to get the degree. I began my with an Open University course and that was brilliant. So everyone grab your course for free. Good luck.

No, they're a lot harder and you wouldn't even manage a Tutu at the OU.

Anyone can assert anything without evidence, see?

So put the blame where it belongs. Successive governments have pulled funding from universities in England resulting in huge rises in fees.

Simple choice. If people want publicly funded higher education then voting Labour is the only option. Otherwise you get what you get.

I tutor for the OU, aong with many others, and can assure you that the fee increases are only an attempt to enable OU to survive, and to continue accepting students from deprived backgrounds who would need to pay nothing towards their module fees. Most of the Regional Centres have now closed, and a significant amount of the face-to-face (f2f) tuition has disappeared, as it is very expensive to provide in terms of hiring venues and tutor travel expenses, and sometimes not valued by students as timewell spent. That aside, this is countered by the fact that material can now be presented in online formats, with online tutorials. Traditionalists would say loss of most f2f is a bad thing, but to sjurvive all institutions must move with the times. An OU degree is well respected academically, and still much cheaper than 'traditional' geographic based university degrees. Education is a way out for many, use it to open the doors.

However, employers kind of tend to favour those with a degree vs those who claim they have taught themselves online.. See: Doctors, Lawyers, etc...

Thank you. Great find. Just enrolled on 6 courses and my daughter who is hoping to study medicine is going to have a look at doing some too

I got a bit excited for a minute there but then I clicked on the link and it meant roads.
open.edu/ope…n-0

Complete and utter nonsense. Having a degree shows (or certainly heavily suggests) that you had both the ability and desire to learn above and beyond what you were taught in school. You may have gone to university to party, but you won't have qualified unless you studied (or went to a really easy/sh*t university, but that would be apparent to any potential employer too).

In addition, you'll have met a range of people and experiences that you'd never have done so if you'd gone straight into the workplace. I went into university far more single-minded than I realised until I came out of it. It was the making of me. And worth every penny I've (completely) paid off of my student loan.



This in particular is fantasy that you've just pulled out of your behind. You'll not be able to back this up with any kind of source. If you're literally including all jobs in this "analysis," then that's equally ridiculous since no-one would expect a university degree to apply to Starbucks as a barista in the first place.



You literally don't understand what literally means. And you shouldn't even have had to go to university and study English to know that.

Just finished 1st year BA degree part time with the ou in my spare time. £2864 a year for six years paid for by gov will only have to pay back if earning over 20k and even then only 2% of wage max, wiped after 30 years regardless. Not doing it for a better job just an extra string to my bow and an option to change career. I'm 43 and haven't studied for 25 years so essays were tough but I would suggest trying to do a course to everyone, great for self esteem and overall brain wellness. You also get free full package from microsoft, latest Word and loads I haven't even looked at like free cloud storage.

Voting Labour is never the answer to anything.

I think this is great as they are small course designed to inspire learning, not just about qualifications.
I'm currently looking at the writing course.
Great find - heat added!

I think I will have a go at something for free . Good find , heat for you .

In your dreams. You won't pay for it in the short term, but they will steal everything you then earn in taxes. What's free about that? Oh sure, it's not your and my money, "It's the government's money". So naive.

The role of government is not to steal from us all to support a grand business (of government), it's to let most of us get on with the process of living (safely, etc.). Most of us forget that we are ultimately responsible for how we do in life. Why leech off the state (i.e. your fellow citizens) to do so?

No one believes degrees guarantee a job, that hasn't been the case for years, and a degree isn't about teaching you to do a specific job, that's an apprenticeship. a degree shows that you are able to engage in higher learning and understanding required for highly technical and knowledgeable roles and have a generic set of core skills, knowledge and understanding.

An engineering graduate for instance is guaranteed to have a Core set of knowledge that is learned to an established minimum standard set down by industry experts for years. An employer knows exactly what knowledge that person has. A teacher will have the knowledge and understanding of how to scaffold learning for students and why what they are doing is best for the situation they are in. A school will know that the teacher has the required body of knowledge and understanding to teach.

Further to that, a university educated student has had the benefit of a specialist educator whose job so to guide the student to understand the meanings and implications of the things they are learning.

Universities also give access to libraries of industry journals that offer the most up to date research information that is not available openly on the net.

Thirdly, the internet is full of crap red herrings and plain wrong information and you can spend ages learning something that turns out to be nonsense.

On a personal note, my time at university opened up a completely new undertanding of the world around that I wasn't even aware of. I used to sneer at people with degrees thinking I understood as much as they did. Quite simply I was wrong.


Now to caveat all this is that it's great to read widely. It will improve you and I would wholly recommend it, any education is good. You don't have to go to uni to be educated, but it opens the world in a way that reading the internet simply does not.

Bottom line, if OU offers you a course, you know it's going to be useful and accurate and teach you exactly what you want. Grab it with both hands and ignore the anti-intellectualism crap that seems to have infiltrated our society that seeks to keep poor people poor and ignorant.

What are you doing in the "Freebies" section then?

If you genuinely believe that she thought was true then you are ten times more stupid than she is.

​Well the evidence is clear, traditional university degrees are valued higher by leading companies HR policies, you will not get for example a 'good' graduate job with an OU degree when up against candidates with a proper degree

Strange path though. Territorial Army to teacher. It must be a rough school!

​Ah one from the blame culture huh!

I don't want publicly funded education and I pay my way but I won't pay 4 times as much for the same product I previously had.

Too much sense of entitlement these days as spoilt brat generation. Tories will fix all this Labour generated nonsense

Hard to argue, my friend has a degree in Law, but has been working for Minimum Wage in the Security Industry for several years.

The vast accumulations of knowledge—or at least of information—deposited by the nineteenth century have been responsible for an equally vast ignorance. When there is so much to be known, when there are so many fields of knowledge in which the same words are used with different meanings, when every one knows a little about a great many things, it becomes increasingly difficult for anyone to know whether he knows what he is talking about or not. And when we do not know, or when we do not know enough, we tend always to substitute emotions for thoughts.

From what I remember, the initial hike was when the government cut education funding for anyone who already had qualifications. They chose to put up prices for all rather than penalise those people specifically because of that ethos. Subsequently most of the rest of their funding was pulled anyway so the point became a bit moot.

So not really their fault, they could either raise prices or shut down completely.

It's such a shame, no way I'd be in the job I'm in today if it wasn't for my OU degree, and no way I could have afforded to study at today's prices.

Your right, the piece of paper means nothing, the work you did to get it means a lot. Getting a degree is far more than just the education, you can indeed learn almost anything on your own, however if you are studying for a professional degree a large part of that is the accreditation. There is also the host of professional and social skills that you learn at universities that go beyond the facts and knowledge, it's not the bit of paper that gets you those better jobs, it's the mix of soft and hard skills.

Also any job you can get without a degree you can get with one. It also gives you access to a whole breadth of jobs only available to graduates and even where a job isn't exclusive it can save you a lot of graft.

If you can afford it and you have a good work ethic it's very hard to be worse off personally or financially from a University degree. And if you are smart about what kind of degree you choose it's either an avenue into a job you will love or one that market demand means you will earn enough to compensate for the time spent studying.

1 'Make of this what you will', was not a sentence but a quote. 2 Also please do not presume to make assumptions on my behalf. 3 I made no suggestion as to the validity of an uneducated vote, again I refer you to 'make of this what you will' . 4 While my post was about as ambiguous as it comes, you have made assumptions and apparently spoken on my behalf as to my beliefs, views and opinions. I would not presume to make comments vicariously through you so please pay me the same courtesy! Please do not feel the need to make anymore spurious comments and simply take on board what I have said here. Hopefully it will help you in day to day life in particular with your interactions with other people that you know nothing about.

You've got it the wrong way round. Learning is good for its own sake. If you do paid or unpaid work it might come in useful. Don't be brainwashed by society or woolly thinking.

Now now, no need to be jealous.

Degrees are valuable.

Including those who go on to earn over £50k, good to know we'd all be paying for their tuition... focus on raising the £21k level at which you start to pay off the student tax, free tuition for all is just naive

Yeah, I'm sure it won't work like that. It will work the same way free education does in other northern European countries, and I'm sure people don't spend their lives in education there.

Attitudes like this annoy me. As someone who lives in a fairly dead town, the most I'd done until I went university is work in retail. Nothing wrong with that of course, great people, reliable jobs but not something I was passionate about but with limited travel options and job prospects... there wasn't an 'easy' way out.

So I went to college and continued working. Once I completed college, I wasn't sure if university was really something I was interested in. The 'debt' and committing myself to a further 4 years of studying, meaning I'd be no closer to a fairly well paid job for a while. However I bit the bullet and went for it. Left my job permanently and went to a termly contract.

I'm about to enter the final year of my degree after completing my placement year. I'd NEVER have gotten the opportunity to get a placement in the career area I did (nor would i have gotten the help and support to get to that point) without university.

The piece of paper means nothing, but the experience and entry level knowledge atleast gives people a base point to start from if you find yourself in a situation where you aren't sure where to begin.

If you are sitting on the fence about going to university or taking any additional educational courses... don't weigh too heavy on opinions such as this because you CAN get so much more from the experience than 'just' a degree and piece of paper that means 'nothing'.

Also... when did educating yourself in anything become a total waste of time. Saying goes 'knowledge is power'.

Yeah but you still need good A levels to even have a chance

Why am I reminded of the movie "Educating Rita" when reading some of the adverse comments about improving yourself by having an education.
Surely it cant be because, (like Rita's husband), they're afraid what will happen if their partner is better educated than themselves?

So we are just stuck with just the 1k free course then i guess, unless something happens to Corbyn and Abbott pretty sharply. (not suggesting they fall on a spike or anything)

​Fabulous

Even the strong and stable courses?

As pointed out by other people, it does mean something when you can't even get an interview for a job because a degree is a prerequisite, so actually a piece of paper to your name means everything.

These are great courses for free. They are taken in general from small segments of OU modules and they are intended as tasters and for use as CPD. If it says five hours you may take two or three to go through the material but five hours will give you a thorough understanding and you will have learned not just read.

With all due respect, a degree does mean a great deal. I hate our society, I think most people are brainwashed into working for the man, paying taxes and getting paid peanuts. They'll pay a mortgage until they're 70 unless they save everything and sacrifice "living in the now". At 21 years old, I was on £25,000 by 23 it was £50,000 and in that line of work it could of easily gone to £100,000+ pre 30's. Without a degree in Physics from a top tier uni, they wouldn't of even gave me the time of day. And in all honestly, the degree was DEFINITELY the hardest part, the work was simple, I drank coffee all day and had a laugh with my mates in the office for the most part.

I'm sick of people saying education doesn't mean anything and it doesn't really matter. No, it does matter, you just need the backbone and desire to succeed to back up that piece of paper. If your dream is to live in a terrace house and do mundane work all day, then sure, drop the education and sit on your ****. Wait for the weekend to come so you can pee your cash up the wall at the local pub and pop out as many kids as you can.

For anyone that wonders why I'm so worked up. I've had to DRAG countless kids from my family and/or close family friends through their GCSE's, a few weeks before the exams when they know nothing. I have to spend my time giving them a crash course in passing exams whilst they know NOTHING. And the reason they know nothing? BS advice from lazy people such as the above. Even if you don't want a high flying job, put the effort in because education is great, and it leaves the doors open for when you OPEN YOUR EYES. Also, everyone has a degree now days, so make sure you get a decent one ;).

Stay in school kids, and don't sit on HUKD all day trying to **** younger generations.

are any of these a doctorate

Could be worse....

To be perfectly honest, there's probably just as good courses on Udemy. There is a lot of crap on there, but there's also a selection of very well made courses, and it's often very possible to get coupon codes that make the courses completely free. Even if it isn't free, there are occasional sales that make courses very cheap. The Udemy interface is great. I've found it really easy to use the site. I was an OU student and I found the site a pain in the ass.

I was studying Chinese with the OU, but I let them know before I signed up that I wasn't completely confident about learning the language as it's a lot harder than a language that has the same amount of tones like Japanese. They assured me I could cancel. I found it too hard and cancelled within the time period. They kept trying to charge me and eventually I gave up, spending over £300 as a cancellation fee if I remember right. Horrible experience.

I'm not saying you shouldn't go ahead with this if it's free. Just make sure there isn't a catch and be careful if you're enticed to paying after the "free" course, since from the look of it these are tasters that are only a few hours of content. That's similar to Udemy, although some Udemy courses are dozens of hours.

Course Title: Analysing Skid Marks – Hours: 4 – Level: Introductory

Who would have thought it would take so long to analyse a skid mark !

That depends on whether or not the OU issue you with a valid student number when you enrol for one of these courses. If they do then yes.

Agree with all the remarks supporting degrees. The people that say otherwise, still live in the 80's and probably grew up with the baby boom generation who had it fantastically great and EASY in comparison. Today is a world of zero hour contracts, people facing impossibility of owning homes (or even a car) and general erosion of salaries and increase in cost of living. Most of us don't have the luxury of wealthy parents to give us an advantage in early life. If you want a professional job, you must get a degree as a hygiene factor.

You simply will not get through the door for many jobs without a degree. You hit the ceiling in your job very quickly without a degree - that means no progression, little increase in salary even if you bleed 10 years into the job. You have less respect at work without a degree. You are perceived to have less potential at work without a degree. You'll get overlooked and watch kids and less able people supersede you in no time -- that piece of paper affords them an opportunity.

I experienced all of the above first hand. I left school after GCSEs with decent grades but no guidance or structural support to go through to further education. So I went into the world of work. In my entire life, I've claims job seekers allowance for 2 weeks. I worked all manner of jobs - call centre, admin, warehouse operative, postman, waiter, fast food pizza maker and burger flipper...I settled in a FTSE 100 call centre job. Spent 6 years there and made three sideway moves. No progression despite all efforts. I gave up.

I then looked back at education and thought "I wasn't that thick, let me give it another go." I joined a college to study 2 A levels, and studied another 2 on my own whilst continuing to work. I got 4 A grades. Got into a top 5 university to study Maths & Business and left with a First. After that, I fell in to an IT job that paid £18k -- it was hard going finding a graduate job in something I liked, despite going to a great uni. Competition is fierce. I should have concentrated more on the social and networking side of uni, but you live and learn. I studied evenings for another year towards a Purchasing qualification. Then I got a break at Jaguar Land Rover and landed a good job, still only paying £28k but the work was fantastic. 18 months on, I moved job and accepted a salary of £53k. None of this would be possible without my university degree. Six figures is a realistic target in the medium term, but more than anything I've found work that rewards personally, is enjoyable to turn up to everyday and I don't constantly have to worry about finances.

I'm now looking at the OU to study a Postgraduate certificate. I'd love to do an MBA but they are incredibly expensive. So to anyone who feels they missed out on a great education, go for it. If you believe you can do better, you can. Anything is possible with a forward looking mindset. X)

Most large companies now look to take on a College age people because they are fed up with the stupid mentality that Uni students have when they enter work. The problem is the education system is a joke and it's their to employ a eco system of its own doing and do nothing else of benefit.

What's up? Not got one?

I've just signed up for Analysing skid marks oO

Is Gillian McKeith the head lecturer on that course?

Why are you restricting yourself this way?
A degree is a foot through the door! Getting a degree shows that you have the discipline to see something through.
If someday you want to work overseas then some sort of academic background is a good idea.
Being on a degree course also open up some networking opportunities.

Even going through an apprentice route, it's still advisable to get some academic qualification at some later date.

You surely need degrees to further your careers in most decent jobs. Simply knowing what you want will only open half decent job openings compared to someone who is armed with a degree, experience alone may not necessarily get you far if you are in any decent job as there will be a glass ceiling over which career growth becomes very tricky. This is purely from my personal experience of 20 + years in the private and govt sectors both across a broad range of industry and also my personal opinion.

Depending on where you want to work, a degree can be the make or break whether or not they bin your cv

Also, can you use this to get an NUS card?

Remember that joining the OU makes you eligible for a NUS card with all the associated benefits. So with this deal you get a free university degree and student status.

Most decent jobs have the "or equivalent experience" clause (at least in IT).

find some nice courses, will try it. thanks

Both apprenticeships and degrees can be incredibly useful ladders into a job; conversely it is possible for them both not to lead to jobs. There is a huge amount of resources online which allows you to learn new things (for free) but to do that and get the equivalent knowledge from a meaningful degree would be very hard (not impossible). There are lots of people which go into apprenticeships and work their way up into decently paid jobs (perhaps around 35k a year), the higher up you want to go salary wise, the harder it can be with only an apprenticeship (this does of course vary from sector to sector, but as a basic rule I think it holds pretty well). You can have a degree and be on minimum wage for your entire life, but at the same point, some of the most highly paying professions go to people with degrees.

At the end of the day, we live in a competitive world, so if you decide what your dream job is, say for example it might be a computer games designer, so go off and search for what computer game designer roles are currently available (look on a site like Aardvark Swift who are specialist computer games recruitment agents), see what skills/experience/etc. they are looking for. Then take a look at university courses which specialize in Computer Games Design, see how many courses there are, how many students graduate from these courses each year, and what sort of work they put in their final years portfolio. You’ll quickly see it is a crazily competitive sector, companies are obviously going to take on the best candidates they can find for the job, so work out what you can do to be the best candidate – if you have a first class degree, that probably puts you in a bracket with a large number of other people, so you’ll then need to think about portfolio projects/work experience/etc. to see how you can stand out. If you do none of the above, take an interesting sounding course, get the degree certificate, and then apply for a job, I’m sorry but there is every chance you’ll never get anywhere, and become one of the people that complains “I went to university and it didn’t get me anywhere”. If you don’t go to University, work out how you are going to standout against those who have – for some jobs this will be possible, for others it will be impossible.

Good luck to anyone who is trying to better themselves, regardless if it is for their own interests, desire for a change of career or simply because they want to earn more money!

Right. But seeing as how many of the applicants will have a degree in an IT related subject what would be the obvious and most easily justified way of narrowing down the pool of candidates?

It might help a lot for first-jobs of very young candiates where they don't have much else to put in their resume. After a few jobs and hobby projects though, a degree becomes secondary for technical minded companies, for most jobs. I believe that companies that operate in the IT field tend to trust their abilities to evaluate applicants and will pay more attention to the experience/projects, whereas companies operating in unrelated fields that just have an IT department in-house are more likely to look (or ask recruiters to look) for degrees first.

It's only for courses no tutors or qualifications etc. Guess if you want a qualification to help with job prospects you are going to have to pay $$$

Can I get any qualifications through OpenLearn?
It's not possible to gain any qualifications through OpenLearn. You will need to register for an Open University course if you want to become a student and have the support of a tutor, sit examinations and gain qualifications. For more information visit the Courses section of The Open University’s website to view the online prospectus.

depends if they play the currency market by no doubt doing a short course in Economics :wink:

Wow... you clearly got rejected from your chosen University! X)

Learnt or learned, the dilemma. :wink:

I'm assuming you're joking? :wink: TA = teaching assistant for those who may not had much contact with education.

But yes! My school is in a deprived area, so it would have been useful to deal with my children! :smile:

Thank you! Heat added

No. we only had teachers at our school.

It seems to me that this is not a degree course, a course leading to a degree level but just provision of online materials. Could people find information whether it is a degree course ??.

If it is just an online materials and not a degree course what is so special about it ?? Many knowledge and information similar to this is available online. On youtube you could even find some universities in the US provide their own classroom teaching coverage. What is so special about this as it reaches more than 1800 Deg ???

Is there any info whether it is just a online teaching materials or it is a degree course leading to a recognize degree ??

lulz. They dont get close to being world class. They are nothing more than a greedy money grabbing institution that uses the 'charity' status to pursue their cash-flow. The head of departments I dealt with were useless and argumentative. I havent voted either way because everybody has different experiences with these type of shoddy services.

lulz. They don't get close to being world class. They are nothing more than a greedy money grabbing institution that uses the 'charity' status to pursue their cash-flow. The head of departments I dealt with were useless and argumentative. I haven't voted either way because everybody has different experiences with these type of shoddy services.

mmm so where are you studying with better teachers, I've learnt loads in my first year of six in the OU?

Didn't they bring in the fees.....yep

I think they'd probably prefer if you paid them in our currency tbh. Paying them in a foreign one would only complicate things.

hehehe :wink:

If you did then you would probably choose a better currency than the dollar. The dollar is equally unstable at the moment. Something like the Japanese Yen would probably be the best way to go.

Mind to mention whhc degree is it ? Is it STEM ??

Politicians will say anything what people wanted to hear to get elected even they are already aware it is not going to work due to limited resources. "Raising tax a little bit more" when asked they have no idea how much is going to cost for all of their popular program voters wanted to hear free tuition fee, promising extra money for school, healthcare. There is huge a mount of money needed and How much extra money they could get from people earning £80k+ ????
Well it is only about 5% of the taxpayers will be paying more tax according to this
theguardian.com/pol…ter nonsense ....

You will not forget:
What liberal said about the tuition fee.
What Sadiq Khan is saying about London Public Transport in his manifesto.
"Londoners won't pay a penny more for their travel in 2020 than they do today. Well I am living in London (not greater London) and I have seen my annual travel card increased last year and will see increase this year.

Well many people living in London using annual travel card and they have seen their annual travel card have been going up since he got elected and will keep raising every year.

Having been an OU student during this fee change I know they had no choice as tuition fees were set by the government who changed the rules specifically so that distance learning providers couldn't undercut. What the OU did do is set their fees at the lowest possible threshold while even the worst bricks and mortar uni set theirs at the highest.

Mostly Science & Technology based subjects with a bit of Planetary science, Optics, & Design thrown in for interest.
Started with S102 followed by T102 (Science / Technology Foundation courses) - not sure if these are still available nowadays, but very glad I did them first.
I didn't go down the 'Honours' route as 'Level 3' courses always seemed a bit beyond my capabilities, so was pleased to make up the 360 requisite points just on level 2 subjects.

My worst decision - trying to do 2x '30 point' courses in one year - far more time consuming than 1x 60 point course, especially if in full time employment - I only just scraped through with those.

Don't know about that. When my working class baby boomer Dad did a degree it was free, he walked into a lucrative secure job no problem, company backed him on a 100% mortgage age 23. That was not atypical for his peers. The cost was repaid to society through economic activity of his productivity and the taxes he paid. This is how things used to be done, before neoliberals started inventing ways of hoovering up the public's money.

May I recommend an economics course?

​That's exactly my point. You pay for the education through taxation (no such thing as a free lunch). May I suggest a comprehension course?

Free to us but paid for by our Children

Yes - Without the studies I took with the open university, I would 100% not be in the field I am in now. It didn't necessarily give me all the skills or knowledge I needed but it pointed me in the right direction, oh and it helped me to get my foot in the door via an internship.

Can I ask how long you studied them and what in particular about their service you didnt like?

I too am in I.T, thanks to an OU degree. Without it, I can assure you I wouldn't be where I am now, nor progressing at the rate I am. As someone who also did an apprenticeship (albeit in a different field), the degree not only opened more doors but broadened my overall understanding of I.T. The apprenticeship did nothing but enable an employer to take advantage of cheap labour.

I'd rather hire someone who shows determination and desire to learn i.e a degree. I take great joy in knowing that, on average, graduates earn up to £500,000 more over their lifetimes than those without a degree. #SMUG #BIGGERHOUSE

Personality and attributes go a long way too, try working on your humility. Oh and don't forget to put ITIL and MCSE in your signature, clever boy.

Your view is wrong and dated, nor is there any evidence to suggest what you are saying.
I've far more respect for an individual that is capable of doing a degree later in life, regardless of the institution where the degree came from.

Meh, I wasn't really talking about Open University degrees. In fact, I have a lot of time for the OU. I hope to jump into an employer sponsored OU degree after my house purchase. Extra stress and all that. ITIL I can check off, but sure, MCSE would be nice. CCNA is hopefully on its way eventually, but as you say, not quite there yet.

From your avatar you look ancient. I'm guessing you have quite a few years on me. Your use of hashtags at said age is not only indicative of your maturity, but also of a particularly sour personality trait which to me implies 'chip on the shoulder'.

What's given you that chip?

The cheap labour point is perhaps true for many apprenticeship fields - Hair salons are notorious for exploitation of cheap labour according to a few pieces I've read. Our place employees apprentices on just under £18k, which, while it's not great, is perfect when you're age 18 and not too keen on university. The progression opportunity is also fantastic. One guy I sometimes work with has a CCNA at age 20. Can't say I'm not jealous of that!

You brushed over my point which is that education (and welfare in general) is an investment that saves money by boosting the economy and through productivity. Well I say it's my point, but it's not really, it's the view of leading economists and backed by swathes of data. The idea that tax to cover the costs of these is burdensome is myth.. here's a grounder from Ha-Joon Chang :

theguardian.com/com…are


Only with a Tory government.

With a centre-left government we all contribute we all gain, and because public funds (ie your children's debts) are not syphoned upwards to a tiny few, so things balance out. The New Labour record on the economy is excellent by comparison, they spent more time in surplus.. the figures speak for themselves.

​Thanks for the reply. If you don't mind if I ask, you work in IT a field which I'm actually very interested in.

There are thousands upon thousands of graduates from proper Ranking unis leaving uni with 1st class degrees every single year. And then again year after year. There's are obviously not that number of jobs to match.

If I add in the there are people who are from international counties like India who are much more educated in IT and work for much cheaper salary.

Bearing that in mind what chance would someone who studied a part time degree at home online with the OU have compared to this??

I'm sorry if it's too direct but I'm just trying to find out my options in life. I feel like you managed to make some kind of success with it

Feel free to ask away. Hopefully I can help.

I left the armed forces at 23 with just 2 years part time OU study and zero experience in I.T.
I applied for about 80 roles and had very little response. I had a few interviews but fell short on getting a full time vacancy each time.For the most part, I was suited to the roles but someone with more experience got the role. It became quite obvious that without experience I was going to struggle. I applied for an internship at a big cosmetic company, (required you to be studying a degree). I was lucky to get it tbh but timing and a few factors meant I got the role. That was the opportunity I needed. I knew I was more than capable and had a solid desire to be in I.T. I started at the bottom working on a horrible and hectic service desk. I soaked up as much knowledge from my senior peers and built some good relationships.

4 years on I'm a Cisco Engineer (I.T networks) doing my CCNP as we speak - worth mentioning that it was also the OU degree where I stumbled into networking. I had little idea what it was until that point, but it was enough to perk my interest and set a goal to work towards.

It is worth noting that my degree is without honours - worth nothing in the eyes of many. Also, whilst Indian outsourcing is cheaper don't let that scare you.

If anything do the degree because you want to learn and the rest will come. I don't regret my degree but it was funded for by the government so no complaints here.

Your initial post came across as arrogant, hence my response. There's a number of people that want to learn, but maybe lack the confidence or feel that a degree holds little value. Your post, in my opinion, gives the view that a degree is worthless. It's not just about the end result of a degree, but the skills and confidence it can give.

BTW I'm only 28, I was 25 in that pic you cheeky t***. Also no chip on shoulder, glad your route worked for you but I personally wouldn't feel the need to gloat by devaluing degrees. Very few degrees automatically equate to better positions but you would expect a higher starting salary.
Good luck with CCNA, its a good overall cert to achieve. Not sure if the OU offer it anymore but you can do the CCNA syllabus with them, and get 60 points towards your degree. Highly recommended.

Nah I appreciate that, but can you blame me for feeling that way? To lay out the situation, I studied Maths, Economics and Physics at A Level. I was on target for AAA, but was disengaged with the whole degree thing for personal reasons. I didn't want to go. Not because it's worthless, but because I didn't want to end up miles away from friends and family splurging money on something I can't be sure will advance me in life.

Upon raising the prospect of me doing an Apprenticeship with a well known IT/Telecoms company, I was told with a smirk, in front of a whole class of physics students "You'll become a bin man if you do that though". Can you imagine how much hate that casts in my mind towards the whole education system and how they knowingly push people towards university just so that they can say "We sent this many students to university this year - How good are we?!?". I was literally cast aside and told to find my own way. Sucks, man. Hence, with students mocking me all day in my last year of A Level for taking an apprenticeship instead of university, I'm pretty bitter about those who wander out of school willy nilly into a degree without first taking a look at their options. What I'm absolutely not getting at is Open University, which I think is fantastic!

Bahahah, just prodding you. It's definitely a better bargaining chip than an apprenticeship, sure, but for me luckily my path worked out. For others it certainly isn't always that way.

I'll definitely look into the OU offering that kind of course, I wasn't aware of that. At this point I'm thinking a generic IT/Networking degree from the OU will nudge me to 'the next level'.

I 100% agree with you though that degree's are not essential nor should they be used in a way to make others feel less adequate. As long as you work towards your goals it doesn't really matter how you get there and those negatives have turned out to be your blessing from the sounds of it.

I recommend doing your CCNA before your degree if youre interested in going into networking. It's far cheaper than doing the degree and cisco certs + experience demand good salaries. Get a copy of packet tracer to simulate basic topologies and the network+ book.

I'm doing CCNP atm, so any q's feel free to drop me a line!

Wow, awesome, appreciate it!

I'm having trouble getting in the OU website, is anyone else having the same problem?

Just tried the link, working fine.

I'll try again, thanks

Analysing skid marks !!!!!!! Its a real course

Anybody know of a course that would help me understand what this quote means?

It's a little late for a response, but here you go. The problem has been this very naïve view.
Don't get me wrong. I understand - to an extent. Only later in life, though. I couldn't be bothered with school, aborted it a little more than a year before my A-Levels (and missed out on AS-Levels for a silly reason), went on to pursue a business-related apprenticeship, because, well, what else could I do? Hated it and the non-existent career prospects – not because of a career, but because of the mindless jobs I had to do. Got my A-Levels afterwards and eventually ended up pursuing a few of university degrees (partially with funding, partially part-time and working a lot to make it happen).

I believe there's three points anyone should consider about university degrees:
a) society expects you to have one for a wide range of jobs - even ones where actual work experience is far more important than theoretical understanding. The range of jobs it is mandatory for is going to increase further.
b) what you make out of your life at university depends on you and you alone. If you merely focus on your degree (or do not focus on anything at all), you are wasting lifetime and opportunities. Soak "knowledge" up. Go and learn about stuff you never cared about or you never knew existed. Be active in societies or other do other things.
Some argue this is a waste of time and refer to the Zuckerberg’s and Gates’. Well, sorry, chances are, you neither have their family background, social network and/or intellectual capabilities. Agreed, especially in Computer Science you can learn a lot on your own and make a living easily if you put the hours in to learn about it. However, many do not do it or get lost. A university course provides you with structure and a theoretical underpinning that will help you a lot if you are serious and keen on advancing in that field.
c) Enjoy yourself. You are likely to have less money than when you work full-time after school, but university is not just about learning. It is also about having time to grow up and figure out what kind of person you are.

As for the Open University degrees: if you are not going for a top banking or consulting job, an OU degree is perfectly fine these days. It might not offer the opportunities an Oxbridge degree provides, but the UO is recognised as a university with reasonably qualified and capable graduates. I dare anyone to give recent evidence that this might not be the case (never been registered with them myself).

As I've done both a degree in a real subject at a RB Russell Group Uni, and an Open University degree I can tell you that your statement is false.

This is just not true. Because the OU graduate has had to manage their own life and time and been motivated to gain a degree without being rail-roaded straight through in a full time education environment, the OU degrees actually have MORE respect than the red brick ones from enlightened HR people.

And in addition to that, no degree gets you a job, the degree gets you the interview. We always put the OU grads through the first cut, because we know they must have the self-motivation and time management skills.

A degree of any kind is entry level education these days, all my colleagues are grads. To differentiate you need a First and Russell Group Unis with their higher entry requirements are the strongest paper qualifications, but OU rates highly, well above some of the less well known courses from the former Poly unis.

The best Oxbridge guys and the other top people at Unis in Durham and London etc will be courted by employers before they graduate. But for the rest, OU is highly rated.

I finish my open uni degree tomorrow at 5:30 Open degree with honours!

Few things I thought I would mention to anyone considering the open uni (remember this is only my experience) is that it takes a lot of time, on average it is around an hour a day every day but can jump to 2-3 hours when essays are due and then as many hours as you can devote towards exam revision!

The actual content of the course is good in my opinion there is a bit of variety, and I have never had a course which is read this do activity x, they mix it up with videos puzzles, etc. One piece of advice is always to do the activities included they help!

Also, note the pass marks at the open uni are very high and are so unfair! You need 40% to pass, and 85% is a distinction compared to 70% for a normal uni. With all modules as well you are graded 50% on your essays and 50% on your exam however they take the lowest grade of the two as an example this current module I have scored 80% in all 4 of my essays but my exam tomorrow I will score around 60% at best, so my overall grade for the module is grade 3 which is a 2.2. If you struggle with exams as I do they will bring your whole module mark down.

The negatives and these are big for me are the tutors, I have had 11 tutors, and of them only 2-3 have I felt genuinely been interested, the rest do the bare minimum as a tutor and simply post what is required when and also some leave a little feedback on essays which doesn't help.

Another issue I had is I found the support around essays notably lacking one essay I failed as I was way of course, but I asked my tutor before I even started writing it and was told they couldn't help as it was to do with the essay, I also couldn't ask other students as again it was to do with the essay. Now at a traditional uni, I don't think that situation would have ever happened as you can ask peers, etc.

There are actual tutorials as well where you can attend however they started off being local to me, so I went to them all however as I got closer to the finishing line and therefore the content gets harder the tutorials were 50+ miles away which was again annoying.

Overall I wouldn't say I enjoyed my time at the Open Uni, I am glad I have done it, but I did it on transitional agreements, and I would have no way done it on the current fees as in my opinion for what you get it isn't worth it.

If anyone wants to ask any questions, I am happy to answer them. Maybe not tomorrow evening though as I will be celebrating!

Great for a free resource

open.edu/ope…n-0 heat just for this, now I can get the bottom of the problem

It meant quite a lot to me. I walked into a job straight out of uni and have had steady payrises ever since. If you don't pick a mickey mouse course you'll walk into a job.

You're dead right, but unfortunately graduates are now being given all the lower paid, unskilled jobs over people trying to work their way up without having to study. The not-so-academic kids don't stand a chance now, especially now people can't retire before they die, lol.

You are more deluded than Jeremy himself, although he was honest enough recently to admit this wasn't possible realistically.
Wouldn't it be a lovely and amazing world if someone else paid our uni, our mortgages, our train tickets possibly even supermarket shopping.