to post here to get maximum traffic re UCAS reference writing?

[DrSeuss]

I have been asked by a friend to provide a UCAS reference for the midwifery course she hopes to follow as a mature student. She asked me because I'm a teacher and so "suitable" although I've never done this before.

Presumably I need to big up the fact that she listens well, takes direction well, can follow instructions in spoken or written form, is caring and a people person. She currently works with children and is very good at this, IMO. She listens carefully to what parents say and advises them accordingly. She would make a good midwife in terms of personality and I think she has the intellectual ability to follow the course. How should this be phrased, please?
Thanks.

are you a secondary teacher? If so, there should be people on your staff who have experience of this? It is important that references specifically relate to the course being applied for, so you need to relate her attributes to specific parts of the job. Something like "X's ability to listen and empathise will enable her to fulfill the non-medical aspects of a midwifery role". Sorry, need to go and teach now myself but will come back later if I have time x

Thanks. Yes, secondary but no Sixth Form :(

Friends can't write references according to this: www.studential.com/applying-to-university/UCAS-guide/UCAS-reference

There is guidance on what to include in a reference directly from UCAS here www.ucas.com/how-it-all-works/advisers-and-referees/referees/undergraduate but it's really not proper for you to provide a reference for this friend of yours.

As someone who reads these forms...

Please tell her to find someone who is not just her friend to write this
Totally inappropriate.

I wrote my friend's reference for her nursing degree. We didn't lie - my relationship to her was friend/work colleague. She's just finishing her 3rd year, so I assume she had no problems. Remembering what I wrote would be another matter entirely...

Actually, scrap that, apparently I just helped her write her personal statement, didn't write the reference.

Your friend should be asking someone whom she currently works with in the childcare setting. They would be able to provide a suitable reference.

The tutor on the access course she is following is her academic referee. She says I am purely a character referee. Is that still a no?

I am not doing midwifery but another health related course. I also did Access. I only used my tutor as my referee. We didn't have to have a character reference as well. If you do provide a reference then you need to look at the desirable characteristics of a midwife and use examples of how she matches them.

This is what it says on NHS Careers:

Excellent people skills
Having babies happens to all sorts of people, so you will be providing professional support and reassurance to a huge diversity of women, during some of the most emotionally-intense periods in their lives.

Good communication and observation
You need to be a good at listening and communicating with women, their partners and families.

Interest in the physical, psychological and process of pregnancy and birth
Working as a midwife you will need to have an in-depth understanding of foetal and child development. It is also important for you to update and test your knowledge against experience.

Ability to answer questions and offer advice
Midwives are the most frequent point of contact for parents to be, so you must be able to answer their questions, share your knowledge and skills with patients, their families and friends and make sure their needs are recognised by the rest of the care team.

Happy to work as part of a team
As a midwife you will be part of a multidisciplinary team liasing with GPs, health visitors and social workers. You will also work alongside the parents and baby. The better you know each other, the more smoothly the birth is likely to go.

Dealing with emotionally charged situations
You will have to stay calm and alert in times of stress, and enable women to feel confident and in control. On the rare occasions where something goes wrong, you have to be ready to react quickly and effectively.

I am a student midwife, and there was only space on UCAS for one reference - I used my Access tutor.

Are you sure that by character reference, she doesn't mean her personal statement? In which case, she has to write it herself.

I needed to provide both a character ref and academic ref for my midwifery. Neither should be a friend. For my character ref I used someone who I had done volunteer work with.

Just be honest about them.

Don't know about Midwifery courses specifically, but (one-time Admissions Tutor here) there doesn't need to be a character reference for a university application generally. And I'd read a character reference, rather than an academic reference as rather 'amateur' and indicating that the applicant doesn't really understand what's involved in a university application and university-level study.

As others have advised: your friend needs an academic reference or a manager/colleague's reference. A line-manager reference outlining the applicant's current abilities, and likely aptitude for university-level education, would be really good to read.

It's definitely not the personal statement, it's a character reference. She is a good fit for the above description.

Yes it is fine for you to write it as they require a character reference, I think, due to the nature of the job. What you have said is fine.

I'm a student midwife. You need an initial reference from an academic source and a character reference a little later to take/send at or after interview. It varies from Uni to Uni :-) I needed two though

I'm applying for children's nursing sept 2014. my access tutor was my main reference but we have been told we will need a character reference and my tutor has suggested my long standing friend (grew up together from age of 2) should be the one to write it. she's a paed nurse x