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question about national certificates and the point in them.

hello. recently I have been slacking behind on my college work. and rarley attending. This is because i no longer have any motivation at all to get up and go. When i think about it I just don't see the point. I meen, I finish my NC... then what? move onto HNC... then i could try and find work or keep going... HND.... then what? university? work? I could do that. But at the end of the day I have clocked countless hours looking into jobs and almost every job I have looked into have said the same thing. Experience required. What is the point spending years in a classroom (9/10 times just sitting their because the pain in the ass lecturer has speant 2hours out of the classroom and is time for a break by time he gives us an assignment. what is the point in spending YEARS gathering these qualifications if it's going to be almost impossible getting the job you want without already having experience doing that job!!! can someone please answer me this? I just despise getting up everymorning to spend £10 getting to a college to spend about 45mins in total doing work. 2hours listing to someone talk about something that in the end holds no relevance and you forget the next day anyway. Don't get this question wrong. Im not lazy. I would do as much time as required too get a decent job and move out of my moms house. and I also have passed everything thats been required of me of this course as of yet first attempt. except for one. because the lecturer that was supposed to teach is binary, well.... never. we speant that entire class photocopying answers to an assesment because not everyones computers had the ability to do the things required to pass it! so I sat in a class for around 4 hours a week for about 10-18weeks. DOING NOTHING! (im actually thinking about complaining about that, I still find it unbelievably hard to believe).

Sorry about this post. I just had to get this off my chest and vent. Also hopefully someone could give me some answers. I just don't see a point in getting up and sitting in this classroom. I feel like im wasting so much time their when I could be gaining experience working rather than being spoonfed a dumbass qualification that I have learned nothing about. (I seriously haven't learned anything new since i signed up for this course)
Reply 1
From a fellow college student and a tax payer, drop out you're wasting your time, your money and my taxes. Internships can help you gain experience but you generally need experience AND qualifications.
Your post is a little rambling, obviously because you're upset at the situation - have you got any more specific questions or concerns? Clearly there are jobs for graduates to fill - apart from anything else, they're delightfully cheap labour. Having some form of experience will absolutely help with this; ideally internships (ultimately even unpaid ones may be worth the investment in terms of 'getting your foot in the door') but your courses will increasingly include relevant projects that you can spin, too. If it would help assuage your fears on this front, you can use e.g. www.unistats.com to see 6-month graduate employment prospects for various courses. You will find that, political correctness be damned, there is a relationship between perceived 'reputation' and employability of graduates from different institutions.

Or are you talking less about graduate jobs and more about those available to you just now? You may find that applying anyway is worth it. Alternatively, try to exploit any contacts you have available, search harder (some, admittedly not many, jobs do explicitly advertise that training will be offered and/or that no experience is required) or submit speculative applications. Investigate apprenticeship or training schemes. These do exist in the IT sector, which (if I'm reading correctly) is what you're interested in.

If you can tell us more about what sort of jobs you're looking at, we may be able to make more useful suggestions.

But, basically: no, life isn't easy. Seeking further qualifications may or may not be appropriate for you at this time, or any time. But do remember that, like it or not, some doors will be effectively or entirely closed to you without the pieces of paper that these courses will give you, regardless of whether you feel or even are capable of performing any task that would be asked of you. It's down to you to decide whether this door-closing is relevant and obstructive to your aims or not.
(edited 13 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by TheUnbeliever
Your post is a little rambling, obviously because you're upset at the situation - have you got any more specific questions or concerns? Clearly there are jobs for graduates to fill - apart from anything else, they're delightfully cheap labour. Having some form of experience will absolutely help with this; ideally internships (ultimately even unpaid ones may be worth the investment in terms of 'getting your foot in the door') but your courses will increasingly include relevant projects that you can spin, too. If it would help assuage your fears on this front, you can use e.g. www.unistats.com to see 6-month graduate employment prospects for various courses. You will find that, political correctness be damned, there is a relationship between perceived 'reputation' and employability of graduates from different institutions.

Or are you talking less about graduate jobs and more about those available to you just now? You may find that applying anyway is worth it. Alternatively, try to exploit any contacts you have available, search harder (some, admittedly not many, jobs do explicitly advertise that training will be offered and/or that no experience is required) or submit speculative applications. Investigate apprenticeship or training schemes. These do exist in the IT sector, which (if I'm reading correctly) is what you're interested in.

If you can tell us more about what sort of jobs you're looking at, we may be able to make more useful suggestions.

But, basically: no, life isn't easy. Seeking further qualifications may or may not be appropriate for you at this time, or any time. But do remember that, like it or not, some doors will be effectively or entirely closed to you without the pieces of paper that these courses will give you, regardless of whether you feel or even are capable of performing any task that would be asked of you. It's down to you to decide whether this door-closing is relevant and obstructive to your aims or not.


Thank you for your detailed post :smile: My main question really is...
Every job I have looked at over the last few months. NONE have said, "HNC required in this...". "HND required for that..." but almost 100% of them have said experience required. So my question is... WHERE does this experience come from? because I think I would be much much better off doing that than sitting in a classroom waiting for a lecturer to teach is for 1hour of a 9-4 day. Oh and to answer your question about the Computing. Yeah I kinda got backed into doing that. When I left school I told the careers advisor I didn't know what I want to do (and I still don't) and then one day I got a call saying I had two interviews at my local college to do computing and IT. I ended up being accepted and am now doing a course I have no interest in (even though im extremly good at it) I would rather be unemployed and on benifits than work with computers for the rest of my life. Thats what kinda sparked my initial rant. I don't want to move on to HNC computing when I didn't overly want to do the NC and I hate it now that im their.

Sorry for the rant and thanks for the reply.

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