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Access to HE Teacher Training

student2b

Hi

I Have applied to start an access to HE Teacher Training in September just wondered if anyone else had applied.

Reply 1

Routhy

I'm on an AtHE: Teacher training course right now, if you have any questions about it.

Reply 2

student2b

Thanks, how have you found the course? Also am aware of the changes being made to the teacher training budgets. Has this affected your university applications?

Reply 3

Routhy

Well, I went into the course not really knowing what to expect. Access was very alien to me, and I literally just chanced upon the course when enquiring about A levels.

I found that the atmosphere was much better than when I did A levels. Mature students are there because they want to be, not to mess around. As a result, it's a much better atmosphere to work in.

I've found there's also a sense of cameraderie amongst the students. Everybody is happy to help each other out, so there's less of a sense of doing everything on your own.

This is especially handy for the Access course because you're dropped into a pretty rigid set of subjects, and if you're not very strong in one of them then it could otherwise cause you to lag behind.

AThE: TT subjects are English, Psychology, Biology and Chemistry/Biochemistry, as well as the obvious study skills/guidance modules scattered around.

I'm not going into a teaching based degree, I'm heading towards English and Japanese, so I couldn't really comment on that.

The overall major pros and cons are:
Pros:
Other students actually want to be there, so classes aren't disruptive.
One year, not two
If you're fortunate enough to do more than 60 credits of work (I do 75, but the final qualification only carries 60) then you have a degree of flexibility with exactly whichdules you want to focus on.

Cons:
The subject sets are pretty rigid, so you may be stuck with a subject that you're not particularly interested in/good at.
It's one year, not two. You go from total basics in September right up to 'ready for uni' in the spring. Be prepared to work hard, it's very easy for assignments to snowball on you if you don't keep then in check.