Mature student

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 11:30:02 +0200

At 53 you would think that my life would be sorted, I should have a steady job and be making a nice comfortable living. The kids are grown and flown the nest and now theres just me and hubby. Time to chill out and relax and wait till retirement. HA HA!

So what did I decide to do with all this free time? I decided to go back into education. OH Boy, I am still not sure that I have made the right decision. It's over 35 years since I last walked through school gates and I hated every minute of my schooling. I was mercilessly bullied becasue of hearing problems and wearing glasses and OK being a little on the heavy side (kids can be cruel). So what got into me I will never know.

Last year I enrolled on a course called Women into Science, it was specifically for women and designed as a foundation degree and introduction to sciences such as Chemistry, Biology, IT, Quantitive analysis (new name for Math) personal development etc. It was specifically for women with dependents wanting to get back into education and equivalent to taking 6 'A levels' in as many months. It wsa really hard going. Getting my brain into learning mode after such a long break was horrendously difficult and there were a few times that I felt like giving up.

The course was fraught with problems from the start. The Local Education Authority (LEA) refused to fund it saying that it wasn't recognised as a course of higher education. (What are A levels if not higher education?) and becuse of this and how hard it was, the number attending became less and less. In the end there were two of us. We were both amazed that the College allowed it to continue but we stuck it out to the end and graduated with a somewhat lacklustre certificate to prove it.

It has opened many doors for the two of us and provided the necessary documentation and evidence to get us into University where we are both studying Nutrition and Public Health. But alas! the course that gave us this opportunity has been abandoned even though there was significant interest in it this year. Women into Science no longer exists.

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Woman into Nutrition

Mature student