Open uni.. advice please

[openunihelp]

I'm 26 and have no qualifications higher than GCSES. I work in research for the NHS part time whilst raising my kids. I'm at the highest band I can really get to without a degree, and am finding it difficult to find more senior roles and it keeps being mentioned in interviews (in and out of the nhs) that my downfall is competing with people who have degrees, or atleast a-levels.

I want to do a degree through the open uni, my heart says English literature and language but my head says business management or something more employable.

They also offer access courses, but it adds an extra year (ish) on to my studying and I'm not sure whether I should just go for it with the degree itself or if the access is beneficial? My fear is that I am in Wales, and the OU still costs £7000 here as opposed to £19000 in England, I'm worried if I do an access course for a year our costs could rise similarly to theirs?

Does anyone have any advice?

I wouldn't worry about the charges rising in Wales for as long as you have the current administration. Your government (rightly) subsidise the cost.

On the basis of your post, I'd say you're more than capable of going straight to first year undergraduate study. Have a look at the available degrees, and the open degree, I'm sure there will be an option where you can take modules from both areas.

Access is aimed at people who have had a break from study.
Research has shown that doing an Access degree first improves outcomes for these people, compared to just going straight into a degree.
See here for more info: www.open.ac.uk/courses/do-it/ready-for-success

Thanks. I can see that if I do the arts and humanities access course I can fast track it and start in February and finish in June 2022. The only dates available for the BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature are Feb or April 2022. Doesn't say there are any later in the year so I worry I'd be sat around for a year before starting the degree.

I'm currently on mat leave so I have the best part of 6 months to really crack on before I'm back working more so sort of want to get straight into the degree due to that, but perhaps I should do an access course if it means I'll likely get higher grades?!

I feel a bit meh about studying business and management, it doesn't sound like something very me, and I worry I won't be interested enough to do well and instead just pick it as it may look good on a CV. Social sciences sounds interesting, but still not an area I'm as passionate about as English and I'm unsure if I'd do well in a completely new area.

My family are trying to talk me into an IT degree, I am good with computers and tech and they think women in tech are in demand but again it seems like a bit of a stab in the dark. I definitely do want to study, it seems silly to be so confused about what to choose yet be so sure I want to do it, but I am!

Really my heart is saying English and that's what matters, isn't it? I didn't do overly well in my GCSES but an A in English language and A* in English literature. Although it was nearly a decade ago! That's scary as I feel so young still

What field is the NHS research you work in just now - and is that where you fancy building your career?

If so, what sort of degree would be most relevant to it?

If not, what area do you want to work in?

I did English lit with the OU because I figured if I did something I was really interested in then I would see it through.

@JustAnotherSod

What field is the NHS research you work in just now - and is that where you fancy building your career?

If so, what sort of degree would be most relevant to it?

If not, what area do you want to work in?

I'm currently working within R&D on clinical trials. I don't know with any certainty that I want a career within research or healthcare admin so I don't want to tie myself to a degree to closely linked to something I'm not sure on, iyswim

I write a lot in my spare time, I have several half finished books but am always too self conscious to let anyone read them. I would enjoy doing more writing in a career, and would love a career as an author, journalist etc but can also see myself in many of the careers listed as opportunities from the lit/Lang degree

Copied and pasted below

	public administration, local government, the civil service, art institutions, and social services
	advertising, journalism, publishing, creative industries and public relations
	education
	legal work
	business, banking and retail
	human resources
	charities and campaigning.

@ShirleyBadass

I did English lit with the OU because I figured if I did something I was really interested in then I would see it through.

This is my thinking do. How did you find it? Do you feel it opened many doors for you? What sort of career do you have now? Feel free to PM if you'd prefer to answer privately, if you're happy to answer at all!

Just my view, and appreciate I come from having built a fairly senior career in local government with no degree - I can see why a degree is needed to progress to more senior levels in your current field, but for any of those posts you've just listed, and particularly now as a 20 something and not a 'new graduate' I think you'd be better building your career through experience and not a degree.

That's not to say you shouldn't do an OU degree - but do it for the joy of learning something your passionate about and not with any specific career path in mind.

The first year of the OU is a nice gentle introduction IMO, I should think if you are currently doing well at a band 4 you will be fine.

Have you looked at the mature student forum on here under education. Quite a few are studying with the OU on there x

@JustAnotherSod

Just my view, and appreciate I come from having built a fairly senior career in local government with no degree - I can see why a degree is needed to progress to more senior levels in your current field, but for any of those posts you've just listed, and particularly now as a 20 something and not a 'new graduate' I think you'd be better building your career through experience and not a degree.

That's not to say you shouldn't do an OU degree - but do it for the joy of learning something your passionate about and not with any specific career path in mind.

Thanks, this is what I've been working at. I have worked full time since I was 17, I started as a receptionist, private sector, moved up to administration officer in local government as a temp, progressed from there to sales administration in the private sector and then moved into the NHS. I worked as a band 2 for 5 months before moving up to band 3 for 3 years and I'm now in my second year as a band 4, but only part time as I have young kids.

I've been going for interviews for band 5 positions and I'm getting shot down for not having a degree. I keep getting the same spiel of "you did so well, but someone scored higher" and having no a-levels or degree seems to be holding me back. I thought after nearly a decade within administrative roles I would be ready to progress to some form of management but employers don't seem to think so.

I'm tempted by some new opportunities working from home can bring, but competition is so fierce I feel I don't stand a chance with no education.

It's really disheartening as I have just short of a decade of experience within hospital, government and private sector admin and am having graduates with no experience hired over me! I feel stuck which has led me to this!

Hi I’m currently studying with OU and doing an open degree mostly Business and Psychology. I would really recommend studying something that interests you (I’m so interested in psychology when I’m working on that module I fly through it. With business I like it a lot less and it feels more like a chore!)
I’ve also done one IT module (introduction to IT) and oh my god.. definitely wasn’t for me but luckily I passed it.

Also with OU all the modules count so you can pick and choose depending on your interests and then you would end up with an Open degree (could be either BA or BS).

I also would go straight into the degree as the first year modules break you in gently and first assignments wouldn’t count a lot towards the mark - so lots of chances and opportunity to improve.

I don’t know about the cost as I’m in England, I got a student loan approved fairly easily and it’s about 6ish k a year? They pay directly to the university.
Good luck and definitely go with your gut!

Definitely do the degree that sets your heart alight and do it for the love of it, if it looks great on your CV so much the better. Employers seem to really value OU degrees as it shows you are capable of self motivation, time management etc regardless of the subject. I have done the degree you are contemplating and loved it, I am now studying Psychology with them because I missed the OU so much.

Year 1, as others have said, is very easy and in my opinion you don't need the access course, just go for it as level 1 study is so gentle it will ease you in. Also join the FB groups for your course and start date (there are usually a few) as the support from other students, advice on study skills books etc can be really helpful.
Go for it!

Hi. I did my undergraduate degree with the OU, although it was 20 years ago so some things might have changed.
The first year courses were all quite broad in content (e.g. I did Eng Lit and the first year course was humanities or something and it covered English, Art, Music, etc) and very accessible. Lots of people I met on different courses hadn't been in education for a long time.
The whole thing was modular so you could choose each module each year as you go along, but if you want a degree in a particular subject you have to chose from specific modules.
When I did it, and it may have changed, you could include one or two modules that didn't have to map to your named degree. So, for instance, you could do, say, a health sciences degree and include a module on poetry.
Look out for summer schools - some courses required a week's residential in the school holidays which was a pain when I didn't have kids and would be a bloody nightmare now.
Also beware that if you do more than one module at once it sometimes meant the deadlines coincided and you'd have assignments from both modules due at same times.
I'd say it's a good option. For me, my parents were against me getting a student loan (they were a new thing then) and it meant I could work and study at the same time so it was great.
I wonder if it's worth looking into whether you could study full time? If you didn't mind having a loan to pay back and if the loan was enough to cover your fees and your mortgage/rent and bills while you're studying. I think childcare would be paid too.

Im doing business management through University of Essex and it’s 4400 a year for 4 years or 4K if you can pay a years fee upfront. I’m in the US, English citizen. I also only had equivalent of a levels and very bad grades at that, and was fine to start straight into the course. Only 5 modules to go!

Have you considered the open degree?
www.open.ac.uk/courses/combined-studies/degrees/open-degree-qd

Also don’t listen to your family. You’re doing a degree solely to facilitate promotion not to change jobs!

There are plenty of non-coding jobs that don’t need an IT degree if you wanted to go into tech. You don’t sound like you’d enjoy programming anyway

I did English Lit with the OU part time (finished 5 years ago) and I loved it. I did actually change career in the end (now I’m an English teacher!) but an English degree shows you can research, analyse, explain, and persuade - so there are lots of transferable skills for other roles. Mostly though, you need to study something that you are happy to spend a few hours a day/night working on, every day, for years. I found the course materials really interesting and so my study time felt like a hobby - I was never tempted to slack off, because I was enjoying myself. It takes a long time to get a degree and I wouldn’t have been able to sustain that level of effort for anything that I wasn’t 100% interested in.

@openunihelp I loved it. A degree was desirable not essential for my role now but I feel helped.

I went on to do an MA in English lit at a brick Uni, a teaching qual and I'm just doing assessor training as well as being mentored to teach teachers.

At the risk of sounding smug, it just makes me proud of myself!

If it's still the same as when I did it, the first two years (if you do it part time) are open anyway and cover history, English, art as well as other subjects so you may develop an inclination towards one or go on a different path completely!

Agree with all thats been said about studying what really interests you. I did a Creative Writing module with the OU a few years ago and it was absolutely brilliant, with the best tutor I've ever had (I've studied at two other places too).

Bear in mind you could sign up for a degree, say English Literature (to qualify for Student Finance), do the first module and see how it feels. If at that point you think, no, Business (or Computing, or whatever) is for me, then you can switch, either to another qualification, or to the Open degree, taking the modules you've done with you. So it is all very low stakes, you aren't signing your life away, you can go step by step and see - or pause if it all feels too much.

Good luck OP, I was at an event last night where several current OU students were saying how much they'd enjoyed their first Arts module.

Can you do an Open degree with a mixture of modules?

I’d definitely do the access course first.

@TractorAndHeadphones

Have you considered the open degree? www.open.ac.uk/courses/combined-studies/degrees/open-degree-qd

Also don’t listen to your family. You’re doing a degree solely to facilitate promotion not to change jobs!

There are plenty of non-coding jobs that don’t need an IT degree if you wanted to go into tech. You don’t sound like you’d enjoy programming anyway

Could you expand a little on your last point @TractorAndHeadphones? I know I can't code, but I am logical and would be interested in working in a technical field

I wouldn’t do the access course, Level ones OU courses are a gentle introduction. Do study a subject your interested in as it will give the enthusiasm to get through the modules. You could choose an Open degree pathway starting with an English lit module and switch later on (you have to follow the specific modules to the degree route though). Have a look at OpenLearn & Futurelearn in the meantime for study skill courses and subjects to warm up. You could start in February, Good luck.

I don't think you necessarily have to do the full degree , I think a HND or Foundation degree equiv along with your current experience will be more than enough to get you the higher roles. I did my degree at a normal university but I think if I was starting a degree now I would only do apprenticeship or open uni, attending a regular uni just isn't worth it financially anymore. I have friends and family who study and studied with open uni and are in great roles now, ie branch manager, team leader childrens services, sustainability coordinators for manufacturing sites etc.

I would reiterate going straight into the degree - OU are very clear that the first year is geared to those who have no prior qualifications. I was an associate lecturer with OU for several years, their materials are fantastic and I would highly recommend it. If you are into computers I would say do IT, with your work experience it could really help you to progress.

@CovidPassQuestion how do you know you can't code? Have you tried building something yourself and completely hated it? Don't knock it till you've tried it!

An 'IT'(by which I'm going to assume Computer Science/Computing because Cybersecurity, Information Security etc are very different) degree doesn't teach you to code. Rather it's the theory and principles of computer science/software engineering. You'll be writing more essays than code and at most courses will have only a couple of modules where you actually write code. So if you want to enter the field you have to spend lots of time fiddling with things at home, getting your hands dirty. There are an abundance of free resources out there.
That's how I started - dabbled in Python at uni, wrote some stuff, managed to get into a development team. The person I replaced had a relevant degree and left to become a project manager. And I spent a good chunk of time helping someone with an MSc Computer Science (he was incapable of rewriting it or figuring out 'why' his code broke). I don't even have a proper STEM degree.

However there are many, many roles which don't involve coding. Project managers, product managers, service management, risk and control. Furthermore there are jobs which are 'technical' but don't involve coding. IT Infrastructure and Cloud for example isn't technically writing code, but you will still need to have made your own stuff . AWS has a free tier, there's lots of courses on Kubernetes, Docker etc.
As experience is the only way to get good at these things. My boss is one - not a developer, has only written bits of code to tie things together (scripting) and with 20 years of experience can almost immediately tell where a problem is when something goes down. He's normally right.

An IT degree is just for HR filters and maybe for higher level roles where your competitors will also have one. Even then you only need it if your first degree was an arts degree with no programming modules. For entry level a strong portfolio, and maybe a combination degree with a couple of relevant modules will be enough and put you far above someone with 'just' a computer science degree. This how people in 'bootcamps' get jobs btw. They're trained to right code, and pick up the theory later which IMO is the CORRECT way to do things. As learning the theory first is a bit 'no context'.

Hence I suggest OP take an 'open' degree if she wants to have some IT modules, write some of her own stuff. But IT is not a field you necessarily need an entire relevant degree in so please don't waste this chance to do something you actually enjoy!

If you're interested reddit's r/learnprogramming has some good resources(the American job market is different though so just take the resources). Also look up Alice Goldfuss, she was a Film student who then became an infrastructure developer on Github (it's where most of the world's code is stored and you have to be really good to work there!)