Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Advice/Life Story - Is it possible or should I be more realistic?

DISCLAIMER - This post contains topics of sexual nature that may upset some people.

I am seeking an advice, I am a 25 year old foreigner who lived in UK for 15 years, I have got my GCSE's with a mixture of Cs and Ds at the time. I never finished my A levels and left school at around 17. I work as a junior project manager at the moment but its a job I am doing for the sake of money rather than what I want to do.

I would have never left school or did so poorly back few years ago if for not the events that happened in my life and I regret deeply now that I am older. Last warning the next part will get graphic and might upset people, you have been warned. When I came to England 15 years ago, it was cause of my mother met a guy, it was a chance for us to have a good life as we lived in poverty back in our country and we had to leave my older sister behind there but the things did not turn out like the dream that we were hoping for. The man in question is a monster, he has raped me from when I was 10 till I was 16 on a daily to bi-daily basis and my mother did nothing when I told her when I was young. It has put me into a bad mental state through out my school years wasting it away with drugs and alcohol, but I have manage to finish my GCSE's with passable grades but nowhere near close I believe I could have if I had a chance to do it in normal environment.

When I was 19 I have gone to police and over the past years they manage to make a case against him from the information and evidence I have provided (he was showing me stuff on his computer back when I was a child and still kept everything so it was easy to prove). I have gone to therapy, taken anti depressants and tried to kill myself few too many times (very thankful I never managed to). Now that I am older and I can dream of future rather than being stuck in survival mode for past decade and a half I really want to achieve my goals.

I am interested in computer science, mainly on gaming design aspect of it, however computer science degree would give me flexibility to pursue a career in other direction than just game design if that is not progressing the way I want. I happen to have a very logical brain which helps and enabled me with my current career and a project manager. However my question is, is doing Access to HE course the best way to go to university in a direction of either computer science or game design. I have heard that game design degree is frowned upon but computer science degree has very low employability unless you went to a prestigious university like Oxbridge or Imperial. Is there anyone out there who manage to get into a top 20 university with an access to HE course rather than am impressive A level resume.

Other question is if I am not able to get into high calibre university is there a point to follow computer science degree if the employability is not ideal after attending to other universities?

Question number 3 has anyone went back to do their A levels and how did it go, is it possible to get funding to do full 2 years of A levels or are you forced to work at the same time?

Thank you everyone for their input and reading, I also hope it helps other stay motivated, and people who suffer from mental problems - tomorrow is always brighter.

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

I'm thinking of going back to uni and I've done Access to HE, and I'm currently studying A Level Maths and Further Maths alongside a part time job.

I've heard people got into UCL, Exeter, Bristol, Nottingham, and York with Access, so it's good. The thing you need to be wary of is the unit requirements the particular degree program will ask for. Some courses don't accept Access diplomas even if the uni does (usually English unis). Some courses need you to have 15-30 credits in a particular topic before going into the course. As far as I know, Imperial doesn't accept Access at the moment. The cost for Access can be from £1500 to £3500

In terms of A Levels, if you have done a Level 3 qualification before, Student Finance tend not to fund you on your second attempt (your funding for Access should be offered so long you go to uni very soon after the course). In terms of cost, you can either try to self study and apply for the exams, or go with a college offline (if local) or online. 6th form colleges tend not to aceept people over 19. I'm currently with an online college. A single A Level with colleges I've seen can cost from £300 to £800, but you might want to check with the colleges you want to attend.

I don't work in the IT industry, but I have a cousin who graduated with a CS degree from Liverpool and was only to able to get a high end job after a bit of experience. As far as I know, the industry cares more about your experience and what you have done than your degree (but you might want to get a second opinion). I'd focus more on the projects and work you can show off to people after uni really (most of which you can do now either for free or at low cost). A lot of the CS jobs I've seen will ask for a degree, even though I don't think the jobs need degrees. If disputed upon, you can try to look into the official qualifications, so people can't dispute the level of skill or knowledge you have (should be unncessary) e.g. Python and Oracle have their own programming qualifications for Python and Java. CompTIA has a set of qualifications that cost less than £1000, but I am not sure if they are that widely accepted in the industry. Microsoft tend to offer their own qualifications for IT, if you want to specialise in Microsoft related products. Google also have their own courses (some you just need to pay the exam fees for).