As a matter of course (for me lol) (Courses in General)

Member Name: justathought

Product:	Courses in General
Date:	25/08/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good experience, meeting people, increasing your knowledge, skills and possibly employability

Disadvantages: can be expensive, can make you less employable if you don't have experience, can be a waste of time

Courses are generally designed to train you for related work, or give you in depth information about a given subject. In my lifetime, I've done quite a few different and varied courses, with mixed results!

Firstly, after high school, I decided to do microbiology at Glasgow University. As I hadn't done biology at higher (AS level I think, if you're English), I actually found first year difficult. In first year I picked 3 modules; biology, chemistry and introductory mathematics. I didn't put in much effort, and it showed. In second year I chose 12 biology modules. I think there was a choice of 25. (I could have chosen to do chemistry instead, but although my grade was better in chemistry than biology, I really despised chemistry!). At the end of 2nd year, I had to choose what subject I wanted my degree in, and this was when I chose Microbiology. After 3rd year, I could have left with an ordinary degree, but chose to do honours. This consisted of 4 modules plus a practical laboratory based research project. Overall, I really enjoyed studying microbiology, but I think there could have been more cohesion in the lectures and labs in 3rd year, as they were disjointed, making it difficult to consolidate the information. The labs and reports were sometimes extremely difficult, sometimes I would just really not understand what to do in the labs, or for the report, and the lecturers were not willing to help you as they deemed this unfair to the other students! The research project was also interesting; the level of guidance given depended on the supervisor you had. I had a great supervisor who was mostly in or near the lab, and would always help if I didn't know something. Some of my friends had supervisors who were never there, or didn't explain anything. After my degree, I found it really difficult to find a job, as most research assistant jobs required a degree, biomedical science jobs in the NHS required accreditation and most industry based jobs required experience. Eventually, I did admin for a while, then managed to get a specialist lab based graduate job in the NHS. However, I had to travel 2 and a half hours each way in a 3 part journey, work with faecal samples and the people I worked with were absolutely vile! While I was at this job, one of the girls that I talked to from a different department told me that I could 'top up' my degree to be accredited professionally if I did certain modules dictated by the professional body IBMS (institute of biomedical and life sciences). I previously didn't know this could be done, so I decided to apply.

In between, I did a saturday morning jewellery making course at Glasgow Metropolitan College. This lasted 10 weeks and was mostly metalsmithing. I enjoyed it and made a couple of pieces that I like (one was too small for me though lol). The pace was relaxed, the tutor was nice, and there were some really nice people there. I realised, though, that I prefer making beaded jewellery. My gallery is www.flickr.com/photos/johaari

I was quite surprised at how fast it was to apply to do modules at Glasgow Caledonian University. Doing the modules cost me £1400 altogether, but since the pay for a trainee is around £25k, and there are supposed to be enough jobs to go round, I decided to try it out. Some of the modules I was told to do were 1st and 2nd year modules (cells and biomolecules, immunology) and were reasonably straightforward for me as I had previously covered a lot of the material in my microbiology degree, whereas the other modules were 3rd year ones (clinical biochemistry, haematolgy, systematic and cellular pathology) and were much more difficult. Although I really enjoyed studying, some of the labs were quite demanding, in terms of what you needed to work out and what could go wrong, and the report required afterwards. I actually ended up in tears after one lab, where I had redone my experiment 3 times, then found out my dilutions were completely wrong, so my whole 3 hours of labwork had ended up in a failed experiment, even though I was the last one working in the lab. The lab supervisor was not sympathetic - she blamed it on the fact that there had not been enough practical work in my degree. Maybe so, but at that point I felt like a failure, and wasn't sure if I wanted to continue doing the modules. After this point, I decided to keep going. I passed all my modules first time with decent grades in May, so was quite happy. I am now looking for a job - AGAIN. As I have some lab experience, I hope this will give me a little bit of an advantage, though some people have done a placement year. I have had one interview for a job at my level, and didn't get the job :( though I still need to phone them back for feedback - I have a feeling they will say they that another candidate had more experience.

At the moment I'm finding it hard to find a job. Any job. Doing the courses I have done has given me the practical and knowldge based grounding I need to do the job, given me confidence, and the opportunity to meet some fantastic people who I probably wouldn't have talked to otherwise. When choosing a course, I would recommend checking whether the establishment you are applying to is reputable, whether the course is good (the prospectus will usually tell you whether the department has any prizes etc), whether you think you will enjoy it (do your research - try and talk to someone who has done it, do some internet research, and try to contact someone in the department for an informal chat), and whether it will help you in your goals (whether that is to get a job, in which case, check if courses in your sector require accreditation of a professional body, whether there is an option to do a placement or 'sandwich' course, or whether certain practical subjects are required; or for your own interest).

While I search for a job, I have been doing some voluntary work at a charity shop, and I have also applied to be a volunteer literacy and numeracy tutor. To do this, I have to complete a course every Thursday evening from 6-9pm. So far I have been to one, and again have met a lot of fab people. The course is also a lot less formal than my academic ones, and I'm enjoying it so far, together with the fact that I will hopefully be able to contribute to my community at the end of it!

If you are dithering about whether or not to do a course, I'd say take some of the factors I've mentioned into account, as most courses are not free (although you can get an ILA from the government to help pay for it - google ILA, or maybe a grant, in Scotland you would contact the SAAS). Some colleges have taster courses at the beginning of a term which are free or modestly priced, which give an introduction to the course. Or, if you wanted to take another route, you could do some voluntary work in the sector you were thinking of - I'd say this is useful and a real eye opener!

Hope this review has helped, and good luck with any courses you decide to do!

Summary: There are lots of factors to consider