East Berkshire College - good for part time study (South East England in general)

Member Name: depurple2

Product:	South East England in general
Date:	06/10/06 (977 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Knowledgeable teachers, good transport links, helpful staff

Disadvantages: Courses sometimes run on inconvenient days

East Berkshire College run a large variety of part time courses. To date, I have done two different subjects.


Bricklaying

As I want to build myself some walls in my garden, I thought I would enrol myself on a short bricklaying course. This would serve two purposes - 1) I could do some of the work myself and 2) If I got someone in to do the work, at least I would know they were doing it properly and I wasn't getting ripped off.

I decided to do a short 10 week course, with a 3 hour class each Thursday evening. These run 3 times a year, starting in September, January and March. I did the January course, and in hindsight I would have done one of the others as some of the work was outside and it was freezing! Most of the class is inside though, in a large purpose built workshop.

The first lesson started off with a tour of the college facilities, and then an explanation of what tools to use and then a demonstration of how to build a small wall. We were also given notes of what we would be expected to do on the course.

We had to set up our own equipment (a raised board to put the mortar on, a pile of bricks, a spirit level, a gauge stick and a trowl), and then we built a basic wall with 10 bricks in it. I managed to finish mine by the end of the lesson and I was all proud!

The next 9 lessons consisted of us practising what we had learnt. Bricklaying itself is quite easy in theory - the hardest bits are making sure you have the right amount of mortar on the brick, and making sure everything is level. Practise is the best way to do this. We were basically working on our own, building the walls as laid out in the coursework, with the instructor coming round to each of us in turn with help and advice.

There is no exam for this course, as it's just for fun. By the end of the course I could build lots of different types of walls and I now have a basic understanding of bricklaying.


Arabic

Arabic writing has always fascinated me, so I finally took the plunge and enrolled myself on a Stage 1 Arabic course. The course runs for 32 weeks - 1 school year. We started off by learning the alphabet, then practising conversations, reading and writing for lots of different situations - for example buying things in a shop, rooms in the house, staying in a hotel.

This course is assessed - 2 tests in each of reading, writing, speaking and listening. The teacher prepared us well for the tests, and was always willing to answer questions. I found the reading the hardest part, as the letters are so different from English.

I am now studying Arabic Stage 2 to improve my knowledge.


Facilities at the college

The Langley campus has a cafeteria for students, but I haven't eaten in there so I can't say what the food is like. There are also a few vending machines selling snacks and drinks available when the cafeteria is closed.

Students can use the library and IT facilities to help with their studying.

The campus is just a couple of minutes walk from Langley station, and there is a free car park - you will need a pass though which you have to leave a £10 deposit for.

There are two other campuses, at Maidenhead and Windsor, but I haven't been to either of these.


Other courses

Some of the other courses available are:
Accounting & Bookeeping
Art & Design
Beauty Therapy
Caring
Carpentry
Computing
Construction
Cookery
Crafts
Dance
Engineering
First Aid
Hairdressing
Marketing
Plumbing
Sign Language
Travel

I would definitely recommend a part time course at East Berkshire College if you want to learn a bit more about something which interests you without having to commit to a full time course.

Summary: Even though it's only part time, I've still learnt a lot