College depression, bleak conservation future

[Jackdaw]

Now then Thoaken,

I am an ecologist and starting out retraining back in 2006. I went to a college to study a BSc in Wildlife and Countryside Conservation and ended up leaving after a couple of years with an FdSc instead. The whole experience taught a few valuable lessons along the way. Namely:

1. Make sure you set your goal appropriately. e.g. if your goal is to gain a specific qualification then you stick to it and deal with all the crap that goes with it. If your goal is to work in conservation then you go out and volunteer at all the places you can to gain usable skills. A BSc is worthless if an employer is after someone with a chainsaw ticket. Having already studied and gained a BEng I decided not to put up with the poor and shoddy service given by my college and quit after the second year. As I wanted to be an ecologist I went out and took placements and attended useful courses that would better my job prospects.

2. Conservation doesn't pay well. It's okay when you are young and don't mind moving around for the work but once you start to put down roots and have extra financial pressures of kids/mortgage etc. you quickly realise that following your heart wasn't the best idea after all. The reason conservation doesn't pay is because most people are happy to do it as a hobby or in their retirement. A few lucky people manage to get places organising the volunteers but everyone else has to put with finding other work. Studying conservation certainly isn't worth getting into + £24000 of debt over as it will simply not pay. Ecology on the other hand does pay relatively well if your good.

I wish you good luck in whatever you do but you might want to have a reassessment of your position and what you actually want out of it. As a final thought you should always enter into the study stream at the highest level you can i.e full degree over BTEC Nationals. It is the educational establishment's business model to keep you studying at their facility as long as possible which is why they try and get you to start as if you don't have GCSEs (whatever the Scottish version is) instead of what I have done on both occasions I have been to university which is to show the calibre of person I am.

Again, good luck.

Jack

 

[ozzy1977]

Finding the work is the tricky bit, on my first year at college I qualified as a tree surgeon, only problem was the college was churning out 20 or so every year in the local area. I stayed on and got a degree in conservation and woodland management, similar problem that there was not enough work around. all the time I was doing voluntary work, still do from time to time when I can fit it in with the wife and son.

If you want to do it, do it, by the sound of things you don't want it if you are coming on here talking about quitting.

 

[rik_uk3]

Something was nagging at the back of my muddled brain and I did a bit of searching where I discovered a thread by the OP.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=105574

He was give good solid tips and also some right nonsense and I'm wondering if this past thread in fact filled his head with the wrong ideas and expectations.

Lets hope it pans out well for the young chap in the future.

 

[Pignut]

I'm fine with handling those types of people. I know that customers in a job can be a pain, but that's not what we're talking about here. I'm talking about my class and their immaturity and unwillingness to learn.

All young? Or "forced" into it by job centers etc.

Young folk snigger, have hoodies, appear or are unwilling to learn. But if they stick it out you will be supprised what they become. What do you want to achieve from your learning? That should be your motivation? If all on the course drop out... all well and good, you get 1:1 tuition

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[Outdoorlifeofbrian]

Sad to say bro, I'm in exactly the same position as you are, I've just turned 20 and am in my last year of college doing countryside management, which sounds very similar to what your doing. Unfortunately the whole educational system is corrupt and it all comes down to money like everything else, we wouldn't have dumb bottom's on the course's if it wasn't the case that the college gets funded for the amount of people they enroll not the enthusiasm of the students.

I've spent 4 years at college and have hated every second of it, it's not for me and it grinds my gears every time I experience more of the unorganized mess they call education, but you only get out what you put in, I find the tutors don't even know what there talking about have the time, and I have to take what they say and do the research myself to actually teach myself anything, but that's just how it is, so I'll keep marching on until I get this qualification so I can then sign up for Uni for another 4 years of the same ****, but hey I'll get there in the end because I'm not stopping until I get what I want out of life!

Good luck to you bro, each to there own, I just hope you make the right decision!

Thanks Brian.

 

[TallMikeM]

I did (as a mature student) an NC in Countryside management about 4 years ago and an NC in Horticulture the year after, so have some recent experience the fe education system. Talking to the staff, one of the complaints they had was that places like land based colleges get a lot of the real no hopers dumped on them by the schools. These no hopers have to do something between leaving school and turning 18, when they sign on, so they get dumped onto whatever college offers low educational requirements. As someone above already said, these courses were usually something like a 1st diploma or similar. We'd see them walking around and it used to make me weep for humanity.
However, we had a young lad on our course who had done a 1st dip the year before, he'd been put on the course cos he had no qualifications and hadn't passed the college entrance "test" (which was wrong, as I took great pleasure in explaining to the person who wrote it ), but this was because he was dyslexic. But he was one of the most motivated, hard working and intelligent people I've ever met, but the system had put him in the wrong pigeon hole.
It sounds like to me, that you're on the wrong course, I certainly feel you shouldn't give up, talk to your course manager and explain the situation. They don't want you to drop out as they don't get paid if you do, so they will be motivated to make sure you're on the right course, with the right people.