Keith&Lol

Hi,
my son is 18 on new years eve and will be finishing his second year at college in june/july 06. we are hoping to be in Aus for july/aug.
My query is would he go to a TAFE or would he be able to go straight to uni, and how do we know if his qualifications are valid or not.
Have tried looking on different sites but can't grasp their terminology Could anyone shed any light on this for me, thanx in advance Lol

Juliecabs

Hi Lol,
I think you might have to just contact the Uni or TAFE for their advice. I've got the same problem but my daughter will only be 17 by the time we arrive. The school we contacted said that she would have to do a whole Yr12 in order to get into Uni, which would mean she has to repeat the year. When I phoned TAFE they said that she doesn't have to repeat the year to enrol with them but there is a cut off date by which she has to enrol for certain courses. So this is the way she wants to go.
Good Luck
Julie

Hels

It will depend on what they want to study???

TAFE is similar to City and Guilds in that it has a focus on trades, but also does business diploma courses etc.

Uni's do completely different courses such as degree's etc.

They are actually 2 different types of Education providers...

TraceyW

It all depends which course he wants and which uni he wishes to attend.

Uni semester stars at the end of Feb. TAFE starts end of Jan (I think). I'm at Edith Cowan Uni in Joondalup, if I can help you in any way I will.

Keith&Lol

Thanx guess we'll just have to wait and see...Lol

Keith&Lol

Thanx for the info I didn't realise that. Oh well back to the grind Lol

Keith&Lol

Hi as far as i know he is already doing psychology,chemistry,sociology and something i can't remember. Eventually he would like a career in either police forensics or a shrink type person. Is there any job prospects in these sort of area's. Thanx for any help or info. Lol

Hels

From the post you have put with what he might like to end up doing why dont you look on the Police force website for the state you are going to and get advice from them as to what they look for?

It sounds like it would definatly be a Uni degree in which case you would need to find a Uni that does the course he needs...

Sounds like you need to do a bit of research...

Keith&Lol

Hi Hels, we've only just decided on Victoria, Seaford/Mordialloc area and have been looking at Monash uni, done some reasearch but unfortunately don't understand most of it. Hadn't thought of looking on the police website so will give that a try. Thanx loads Lol

Hels

You probably have it already, but this site is great for info...

http://www.goingtouni.gov.au/Home.htm

Hope it helps

Keith&Lol

Brilliant, it should keep me going for a while. Lol

cranni

Hi there, you dont say where you are heading for, you go into Uni on points, my daughter was 2 points short, so has just done a pathway [6 months] then starts in Feb. My son comes over in jan he is doing 2 yrs at Mt lawley, he got 120 points credited he has done 1 yr in UK. If you are coming over to WA i will give you a really good contact at ECU, Denise

Smartinis

Be warned he may need English and Maths to get onto any uni course in Oz as these are compulsory year 12 subjects over here and all uni's seem to have them, or at least English as a prerequesite, we are in that position at the moment as we arrived in September, our son has 4 A levels completed in June this year and wants to go to uni in Feb, but he didn't do either English or Maths past GCSE. May find that they either have to do a bridging course first or take year 12 to get Oz equivalent. We have to wait and get his certificates assessed before we'll know and they aren't available yet from the UK, so time will soon be running out for this years applications anyway. Its not as straight forward as you may think!

seang

As a previous poster mentioned Uni is points based. If you dont meet the requirements then , as mentioned , there is the pathways option. These are usually run by the Uni's but be warned can be very expensive.

The other option is TAFE. This has many benefits. If there is a course that is closely related to the Uni course then you can receive credits towards your degree and possibly only have to complete the last couple of years of the uni (get credits towards subjects already covered in Tafe). The pathway from TAFE can be a)transfer to Uni after 1 year or b)complete the TAFE diploma (or cert) have a qual and apply to the uni.

It has to be remembered though a TAFE qual alone is not enough to be certain of a Uni place - you have to score highly (possibly all distinctions).

Even if you dont have a Tafe course related to your prefered degree any diploma/cert can be accepted as ability of prior learning.

helinuk

Great thread!
My daughter is taking 4 AS levels - English and Maths are not included! So it looks as if she would need to do yr 12 (VCE,) if we went to Victoria. She found Maths difficult but managed a grade B in GCSE , but she'll be very upet to hear she has to study maths again!