Studying to be a health professional? Particularly welcome if you're deaf or working with deaf people.

[mummyofeb]

Hello there,

having been for an interview for an accountancy course at my local college and thought about it, I've now decided that my heart is not in it.

Reason being mainly I can't afford it if I want to do BSL Level 2 as well so it's a case of which I wan t to do more. BSL won.

Have spoken to a speech therapist trainee friend of mine and he mentioned training as an audiologist. I won't be able to retrain now anyway as ds is not in school yet but just in case and for future reference...

Has anyone had experience in the BSc audiology
degree? Or the Postgraduate certificate in audiology?

What do you do about funding? I know that NHS pays the course fees but what about living expenses? I really don't want to get a loan if I can help it!

What other careers are available for working with deaf people apart from notetaker, lipspeaker.

I've got QTS in secondary maths but am not sure whether this is transferrable for teacher of the deaf jobs..

Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks.

Is QTS a teaching qualification? If so, then you could do ToD with a little bit more training.

QTS stands for Qualified Teaching Status which means you've met all the minimum standards to teach your subject specialism up to A Level standard.

anybody else?

AFAIK ToD don't need BSL level 2 as they mainly work with cochlear/hearing aids etcas the Deaf kids go to Deaf schools
(According to our ToD who I have to interpret for as she doesn't sign )

what is AFAIK?

I'd rather not do teach children again to be honest. I'd like to work with adults!

Shocking that ToD does not sign at all!

Apparently she did level 1 years ago but has forgotten it all.
The ToD is an adviser rather than a teacher(at least ours is) she also checks the hearing aids etc.

My son's ToDs (he's had 3 or 4 so far) are all teachers first. They advise the regular teachers on things related to hearing impairment, e.g. child should be close to the teacher, how to use the radio aid, how to plan the lessons so as to make them fully accessible to the deaf child etc. They check on the hearing aids too (or cochlear implants) but their main role is education-related. They also check on DS's progress, do some one-to-one teaching etc. AFAIK (as far as I know) ToDs only work with children, not adults. None of DS's ToDs know BSL, but then neither does he. He's 6 and in a mainstream school.

Thanks for your comments.
Nikkie, are you an interpreter or a teaching assistant or communication support worker. I know you said you interpreted for your ToD but I understood that you could be interpreter if you had BSL level 4 and a CSW if you have BSL level 2.

Did you do anything with your BSL before you interpreted for you ToD?

There is a TOD website - just search i've found it easily in the past as i'm considering retraining and taking this route, from what I understand it is just a postgrad certificate once you have QTS. Not sure about BSL as my son is oral and in mainstream, but I understand that his TOD supports a whole range of deaf kids. Have to say it appeals to me the idea of working in a number of settings and not being tied to one school but still building up a good relationship with the kids you support.

Thank you AM for your bit on training to be an audiologist. I think the forum is not accepting guest posts at the moment :( so am unable to pick one's brains there!

Not sure whether you could answer me this, I've got a degree in maths and PGCE and 3 years of work experience post qualification. Sadly, I've got a low class honours :( which may hinder my chances of doing the MSc. Do you know whether they would accept students onto the MSc without a second class honours or would I need to do a BSc instead?

Where did you do your course? What did you do before? Just being nosy!

I am a Teaching assitant (level 3 if that means anything to you) but as part of my job I interpret for a deaf child(sn)/differentiate his work/liase with the TOD etc.
I have level 2 haven't gone any higher mainly because of lack of courses in this area and couldn't afford to pay for the course and travelling!
The child I work with leaves school next summer so I am starting to think of what to do next.

assistant even

Nothing wrong with being an assistant nikkie!

When I was teaching, I could not have done without our assistants. They were such a laugh and very well respected!

Thank you am for your comments. I am assuming that you did your MSc before you had kids? If no, how did you cope with the workload?