I have no idea what I'm doing. A little advice? (1 Viewer)

[Nazxul]

Hi there,

I've just finished my HSC and scored a pretty poor UAI so I'm seriously thinking of going to TAFE and doing a course (or courses) in the area of Information Technology (it was my strongest point in the HSC and I thoroughly enjoy it). Thing is, I don't know how any of it works or what course would be best for me to choose. I've tried reading about it and looking around the TAFE website but it all seems a bit confusing to me. I've looked at some courses near me and from what I've read about it, "3661 Information Technology (Systems Administration) - Diploma (AQF) " looks alright ... but in all honesty, as far as I know, it could be the worst thing I could choose.

Could anyone point me in the right direction as far as what course/s might be best to start me off? If I could transfer to Uni after doing one or more courses, that would be great too. What does that involve?

Another thing, I've heard of courses (or people doing courses) that go for 2 years, but I can't seem to find anything about how long any of the courses go for on the TAFE website. Under "Availability:" it says "January to June 2006" .. what exactly is that referring to?

I mean shit, have I even left it too late to enrol? How can I tell if any of the courses I'm looking at required an application?

I understand that I may have said some things and asked some questions that might seem really stupid or obvious to you guys. Please pardon my ignorrance, I'm not kidding when I say I have no idea what I'm doing, I really don't have a clue. So any help would really be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot...

 

[kami]

To find out whether your course needs an application click on its profile in the TAFENSW site, and look down the bottom under STUDENT SELECTION, somewhere under there it will say SELECTION METHOD - if it mentions the TAFENSW Course Application Form then it is too late too apply for a course starting term 1 next year as the deadline was the 28th of October(there may be some few empty spots available if you ring around though). Others will have open days for their courses and if this is the case then contact the campus of your choice and ask for the relevant date.

You can use the Diploma to get into university - basically what happens is that your grades in the Diploma get converted to a number and that number gets averaged with your UAI and you use this averaged number as an entrance rank to apply to uni. It should also be noted that you can recieve credit for your diploma if it is relevant to the uni degree you would be studying, the credit is up to a year or a year and half for an Advanced Diploma I believe, and this all means you won't be starting at the beginning of your uni degree but rather in the second year of your uni degree.

Depending on what you have studied before, the Diploma can take 1 - 2 years, and sometimes less if you have a significant amount of credit. An example is if you did VET IT in the HSC which is a Certificate II in the same area and should accelerate you in the degree, you can also apply for credit for normal HSC subjects such as English Advanced, IPT, Mathematics etc. depending on your chosen TAFE course. You should give this link a read: https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/hsctafe/new/index.htm

As far as whether IT is the best or worst thing for you, well you have to ask yourself if you not only enjoy IT, but want to study it at TAFE then presumably university and finally enter the work force in that field.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Hey Naxzul,

I know how you feel. I finished a diploma at TAFE last year, so I know how you feel with the whole TAFE thing. Firstly it doesn't matter what UAI you got and don't let that discourage you when approaching tertiary study. I didn't get the UAI I wanted either but i've found another to get into the course I want to do.

It may be late for me to be giving you advice but someone else may use this. My friend did a IT diploma at Tafe and really enjoyed it and is going on to a IT college. Diplomas generally go for 2 years. But the whole getting into tafe can be confusing cause you'll find that you get different information. The best thing to do is to call the info line 131 601 if you haven't already done so. My best piece of advice would be, be persistant and don't give up even when your told you should.

Good Luck