How long did it take to complete your Access course?

Hi all,

Hoping to get some advice. I'm hoping to study BSc Midwifery at Uni in Sep 26/27. I've been out of education for over 5 years so I'll need to do an Access to HE Diploma first (looking at Health Professions). Ideally i'd study in person at my local college but i'm not in a position to leave my job, so will need to do this online alongside working 40 hours a week. If I start in March or April 25 am I giving myself enough time to complete for Sep 26 while working full time? I've heard it can take up to 24 weeks to receive your certificate once completed and I'm not sure if I need to factor this into the timeframe or if the physical certificate isn't needed by the universities.

Also if you have any recommendations for online providers for Access to HE then I'd love to hear them. Thank you!

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by Em4248

Hi all,
Hoping to get some advice. I'm hoping to study BSc Midwifery at Uni in Sep 26/27. I've been out of education for over 5 years so I'll need to do an Access to HE Diploma first (looking at Health Professions). Ideally i'd study in person at my local college but i'm not in a position to leave my job, so will need to do this online alongside working 40 hours a week. If I start in March or April 25 am I giving myself enough time to complete for Sep 26 while working full time? I've heard it can take up to 24 weeks to receive your certificate once completed and I'm not sure if I need to factor this into the timeframe or if the physical certificate isn't needed by the universities.
Also if you have any recommendations for online providers for Access to HE then I'd love to hear them. Thank you!

I did my course offline at a local college. Typically you do 15 hours in class and 15 hours of self study. This was over the course of 9-10 months.
If you put the numbers together, it's at most 1300 hours and at least 1170 hours

If you have done a degree before, a lot of the format and information should appear familiar to you. My tutors once said that you can typically cut the classroom time down to 3 hours a week with such a background. As such, you can say it's at least 702 hours and at most 780 hours. It also depends how fast you can read and type.

The typical A Level takes 300 hours to study the material, and another 300 hours to revise the material, so the above sounds about right.

I am not familiar with the online Access courses, but from what people say you can do it in as short as 6 months or as long as 18 months. The number of hours that you spend on it shouldn't change though (unless you're a very fast and diligent student).

i'm not in a position to leave my job, so will need to do this online alongside working 40 hours a week.
I don't recommend spending more than 20 hours on top of your full time work a week, but that's up to you. Whatever time you spend studying should also count as the hours you also spent working.

If I start in March or April 25 am I giving myself enough time to complete for Sep 26 while working full time?
If you are sticking to 20 hours a week, then the following applies:
1170/20 = 58.5 weeks or 1 year and 1.5 months
1300/20 = 65 weeks or 1 year and 3 months
708/20 = 35 weeks or almost 9 months
780/20 = 39 weeks or under 10 months
So yes, you can. It will likely be difficult to keep up though, unless you're very disciplined.

I'm not sure if I need to factor this into the timeframe or if the physical certificate isn't needed by the universities.
The key thing is that they care about your transcript - the document with all of your grades, modules, and credits on it. The certificate is just for decoration and something you can hang up on the wall.

Also if you have any recommendations for online providers for Access to HE then I'd love to hear them
Whilst I don't have any recommendations, you can look up the relevant courses using the following: https://www.accesstohe.ac.uk/course-search

I'll need to do an Access to HE Diploma first (looking at Health Professions
The key thing about Midwifery is that they ask for 15 graded credits in biology (as far as I know). As such, you can technically do it with almost any science course not just health profession. I would check the entry requirements of the individual degree that you want to do before picking your Access course. I also recommend that you check that the degree is accredited by the Midwifery and Nursing Council before doing it, otherwise you won't be able to become a midwife.

Reply 2

Someone_2005

Original post

by Em4248

Hi all,
Hoping to get some advice. I'm hoping to study BSc Midwifery at Uni in Sep 26/27. I've been out of education for over 5 years so I'll need to do an Access to HE Diploma first (looking at Health Professions). Ideally i'd study in person at my local college but i'm not in a position to leave my job, so will need to do this online alongside working 40 hours a week. If I start in March or April 25 am I giving myself enough time to complete for Sep 26 while working full time? I've heard it can take up to 24 weeks to receive your certificate once completed and I'm not sure if I need to factor this into the timeframe or if the physical certificate isn't needed by the universities.
Also if you have any recommendations for online providers for Access to HE then I'd love to hear them. Thank you!

Hi, they say it takes 10/12 months to complete, but I think you would have enough time for sure, you’d need to complete it by 31 June 2026, to receive certificate in time!

Reply 3

frantic-blue

Hi! I’m currently doing an Access to HE for nursing (also covers midwifery). It’s completely online and I work 30 hours per week as well, I could definitely work a little more but I’m also a single parent. I went through my local college, but there are some students who aren’t, one lady is based in the Isle of Man. It’s at riverside college in Halton, Cheshire. I know they need you to come in at least once for the first day while you get set up but I’ve not been back in the college since then.

There’s a lot to get through. You need at least 15 hours a week study time, but it’s 100% manageable and I’d recommend my college if you could get there initially! I started in September and my course ends 6th June so I’ll have my certificates in time for uni this September 😊