Here’s Why This Is Actually The Perfect Time To Go Back To University
Be what you want to be with one of Australia’s largest online learning providers
Are your plans for 2020 kind of kaput? Yeah, same. Right now, pretty much everyone is coming to terms with the fact that this year is going to be a weird one.
But it doesn’t have to be a write-off. Thanks to our new overabundance of home time, this is actually a great opportunity to pursue further education. Whether you want to go back and finish that degree you started a few years ago, upskill to prepare for a changing job market, completely change career lanes or finally get the qualification you’ve always dreamed of, enrolling in TAFE or university can help you make some lemonade out of 2020’s lemons.
So, where do you start? This crash course in all things tertiary will run you through what you need to know about going back to uni after a break – or enrolling for the first time. Read on to start plotting your education glow up.
Yes, You Can Do It Online
Thanks to the wonders of the internet, your study goals don’t have to wait. Institutions like CQUniversity have been doing distance education forever (okay, 40-ish years) and already run many of their courses online, so you know you’re going to get just as good a qualification as you would on campus. But even if the course you’re interested in is usually only available on-campus, right now they’ll let you kick things off online, then support you through a transition to on-campus study when the time comes. Too easy.
No, You Don’t Have To Commit Years Of Your Life
If the idea of diving into a multi-year degree seems a little daunting, start smaller. There are a range of study levels beyond the standard bachelor and masters degrees, so you can dip a toe into an area of interest before you commit fully. Starting small can even open doors to higher-level qualfications if and when you’re ready.
Try out a TAFE course, or check out your eligibility for a graduate certificate if you already have a degree or professional experience – you can often upgrade it to a graduate diploma or even masters degree later. CQUniversity has a unique range of accredited and non-accredited short courses that take between a few hours and a few weeks to complete, so you can upskill or boost your resume with some professional development faster than you can re-watch all of Friends (again).
Image: Estee Janssens / Unsplash
It Can Help You Level Up Your Career
If you’re already working in a field you like but want to take your career further, a degree could be the way to do it. Take it from Victoria Keevers, who is currently studying a Bachelor of Public Health at CQUniversity. After Year 12, she landed an administrative job with her local council, where she’s now worked for nine years. In time, she realised she wanted to be one of the environmental officers she saw around the office — a job that requires a higher qualification.
“You need a degree to work in public health because there’s a lot of science involved in legislation,” she says. “The course knowledge is quite transferable so it can be used in government as well as the private sector. I want to be an environmental health officer and after completing my course I feel supported enough that I can definitely get there.”
Honestly, Most People Are “Mature Age”
Erin Lewis, who completed a Bachelor of Information Technology at CQUniversity, was initially worried she wouldn’t fit in with her classmates. Not so – both students and teachers were super friendly, and the small class sizes made it a supportive learning environment.
“I was a bit nervous because I’d been out of high school for quite a while before starting and I thought it was going to be a lot of young people and that I would be really far behind and outside of the group,” she says. “But the group I was in was so great, the classes were small and we all really helped each other out whenever someone was struggling.”
There’s Heaps Of Help For Students
Good universities will support students through their degrees because they want you to do well. For instance, at CQUniversity you can easily get extra help with your assignments, have questions answered in friendly online forums, and email your lecturers any time you like.
And they know you’re going to be balancing study with other commitments, which is why they offer so many courses online. Mother-of-two and Bachelor of Nursing student Jessica Whalley says that the flexibility of study made a huge difference, because she simply wouldn’t be able to make it to IRL lectures.
“I generally wait until the kids are asleep and study for an hour or two at night. That is my main study time,” she says. “I can watch lectures on my phone wherever I am out. You can do it wherever, whenever.”
Image: Christin Hume / Unsplash
You Can Apply Now
Like, right now. At institutions like CQUniversity, you can apply today for courses commencing in Term 2 (which starts in July) and Term 3 (which starts in November), or even get super prepared and plan your study for Term 1 in March of next year. TAFE and short courses begin year-round. All the info you need to apply is up on the CQUniversity website. So, what are you waiting for?
This article originally appeared on Junkee.
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Explore your study options with CQUniversity.
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(Lead image: Christin Hume / Unsplash)