OU biology study then teaching?

[Giraffesarecool]

Sorry, posting here for traffic.

So as not to drop feed, I went to university after a gap year to study veterinary medicine. I became seriously depressed due to family issues, my boyfriend at the time being a complete and utter arsehole, and struggling with being away from home and in a city. So I quit after a year, also partly because after being blinkered to wanting to be a vet all my life it didn't actually suit me. I passed every exam that first year but one.

I then went straight in an online BSc in psychology, where I did pretty well but again, due to dickhead BF ended up quitting at the last semester but passed everything up to that.

After dickhead BF was no longer about I went back to the uni I did veterinary at and travelled from home to do a BSc in Biological and Medical Sciences. It was a fab course but realistically commuting from home was too much, my parents were still making life difficult and I was a bit burnt out and still struggling somewhat with depression and anxiety. I'd completely lost my mojo and work ethic. So decided that there was just no way I was getting a degree at this point in time. It was all very gutting and upsetting but it wasn't happening. Fwiw I'm not a very clever person, I have to work extremely hard to get grades etc.

So, a few years on and me and new, amazing DP have an almost 1yo DS. I'm not skilled enough in anything that'd pay enough to cover nursery fees, and I'm a bit bored of SAHP. At least I will be for another 3 years. I also find it largely depressing that once DS is in school my prospects will be fairly shit. I've also had a bit of an itch to start studying again. Plus I have a years student finance left that I could use.

So, my question is, does anyone have experience of credit transfer with OU and could maybe shed some light on whether I could count all credits from previous study? Is there a limit to how many credits you can transfer?

I had a think last night and wondered as to whether (in an ideal world) I could transfer credits, hopefully have a year, or just over of study needed to gain a BSc. I could use student finance for a year then fund a few other modules if needed.

I could do this whilst DS isn't insl school, and use student finance maintenance to up nursery hours (currently in 2 afternoons a week and loves it). Once that's completed, and he starts school I wondered about doing a PGCE with the view to becoming a biology teacher, thus giving me a job that is going to hopefully enable me to get into lab work etc once DS is older, but give me all school holidays off.

I feel like I've found the answer, in theory!

Can anyone see any gaping holes in this plan, or can offer advice about OU study? Would an OU degree get me onto a PGCE?

Any advice would be much appreciated. I have one year funded left and I need to get this right!

The OU part sounds great but do have a think about the PGDE carefully. I interviewed for it last year and I have a science degree and I work in a school and they still didn't take me. With hindsight it was because I hadn't fully committed to teaching as a career and wasn't enthusiastic enough about the job itself. (probably being around a lot of teachers daily doesn't really help with this!) I was looking at it as a way to make more money and expand my prospects. They want people who foremost want to teach.

For instance if you went in and mentioned your further career plans, they would not be keen on that at all.

Oh P.S I am a school science technician and you sound like you already have enough experience to work on our side of the bench. We get similar hours and holidays, way less pay, but none of of the behaviour management and take-home work. I second joining our lot. ;)

Do you have a local university? I've studied remotely and it can be much harder than going into a place. You might benefit more from the face to face interaction, especially if your other time is with a LO. Maybe consider that as an option too and see if anyone would credit it your previous learning?

@lavellan do you really think I'd have the experience to outright apply for a position? I'd love to do something like that. I'm sorry you didn't get accepted, but I totally understand what you're saying.

@cannylad, there are colleges, who only offer qualifications I pretty much already have, but I had wondered about taking something as a refresher. The appeal of working from home is I don't have to panic about childcare. I could study during nap times and the evenings and weekends when DP is about.

I've just had a look online and Ulster University offer a range of biomed online degrees. Has anyone any experience or know anything about them? I've sent an email asking about credit transfer so we shall see. I could really do with doing just a year or two as I thinks e would struggle to find three years without student finance (well two technically I suppose).

I don’t agree with the person who started at 9am on their PGCE! Lecture days

Yes, just the lecture days - school days are more like 8am-6pm in my experience. I also found the academic part of it easy, it was time consuming but not hard, even the masters modules were fairly easy.

The academic stuff is generally dull as anything. I did a study on the effectiveness of worksheets.

I used to leave the house at 645am and get in at 630pm most days. I did a school based training programme though.

I have sound chemistry and physics knowledge so that would be okay

Could you teach these subjects to A Level? Would be a huge advantage.

@recrudescence perhaps not physics. I could do GCSE physics, but I imagine chemistry I could. I don't know though, I got an A at A Level but it took an enormous amount of work.

Obviously your main focus has to be on finishing your degree. Hopefully you can transfer credits from your previous study.

If you're keen on teaching, do the PGCE. It'll give you a good idea of whether you want to teach or not. If you decide it's not for you, there's no shame in that.

School lab work might be ideal, but is probably quite poorly paid, as it'll be pro-rata.

It sounds like all your credits are from first year, or level one. So although you will be able to transfer some credits, you can only have a maximum of 120 from each level.

To get 240 credits you'd need to have completed first and second year so you can transfer level one and two over.

The academic stuff is generally dull as anything. I did a study on the effectiveness of worksheets.

Rather you than me, I'd have struggled to achieve the word count on that one. DId you get any choice about your study?

@losinglola, I had no idea but it makes sense. We could probably stretch to funding a full year but it wouldn't be ideal. Hmmm, that's certainly thrown a bit of a spanner in the works.

@Giraffesarecool technically the minimum for my job is only standard grade Maths, English and a Science. It depends on your competition, of course everything you add to that is helpful. But there are others who came a more vocational route than me. You can start as a "technical assistant" for example. Unless you're in Scotland I can't help you with pay, from what I've seen we make more than England. :(

You wouldn’t be able to teach chemistry with just an a level unless you did more chemistry modules during your degree or did a subject knowledge enhancement course. It’s really hard to teach. If you struggled I’d ditch that. I don’t know any science teachers who teach more than one subject to a level.

brizzle you won’t be surprised to know I was allocated that topic!