Welcome to people from The Student Room forums where there’s a lively discussion about this subject…

I feel I’ve pretty much wasted £600 and the last two years at TVU (Thames Valley University, the former “Reading College”). Just thought I’d tell how I saw it from my perspective. I’ve no doubt I’m going to annoy someone, but if you think I’m wrong, form a reasoned argument and post it.

In 2005, I started a foundation plumbing course. I sailed through it with the highest overall marks, doing well in the practical, theory and key skills aspects.
However, I was rather startled to find that effort counts for absolutely nothing.

After putting exceptional effort into the technical drawings and key skills presentations, I then sat in a presentation while other people, who had not done a single thing, were allowed to go and print out something totally irrelevant off the internet and just stand and read from the page! In fact, I clearly remember one standing there, having not even read through, so that he said:
“…and for information you can click her….I mean here. Oh, I don’t think I was meant to read that.”
And they were allowed to do this over and over again until it scraped a bare minimum standard.

The whole foundation course appeared to be just about “bums on seats” – doesn’t matter how incapable someone was, they’d pass. “Everyone must have a prize”. I only remember one person getting kicked off the course, and that was because he fiddled his EMA. But it’s about educational standards, not the money, right?

And key skills was just a joke - questions like, “What belongs at the end of a sentence. A full stop or an elephant”?
And yet still 50% failed. They probably answered “release back into the community” for that one, though…

I got onto year 2 of the NVQ. The standard was far higher, only three of us from year one made it through, and then was less messing about, so no griped there.
At this point, I needed a job in order to complete the practical aspect. How hard could it be? I can turn my hand to any skill needed – I’ve done everything from electricity network maps for the national grid to huge fence runs on farms in New Zealand.

Then I hit the snag – the Polish dimension. So when I ring up a plumber (one of the 45 CORGI registered ones in a 30 mile radius that hasn’t gone out of business), the answer’s either:
• “I have a choice – watch over an unqualified person who probably won’t be insured, or backhand a Pole £3 an hour”
• OR – “You’re from TVU? Sorry mate, no way!”

A lot of us who weren’t already in the industry found the same thing.

I was at a builders merchants when I saw one guy’s leaflets pinned up.
This boy was consistently and utterly hopeless, missed a large chunk of the course, and no-one I spoke to even remembers him being there for the last month. HOW did he pass?

That’s not a very enviable reputation for a college to have. Places for H&V students are in extremely short supply.
Here’s a transcript from BBC Radio 4’s “file on four” programme, explaining exactly the problem I had:

The government agency charged with closing the nation’s skills gap receives more money than the Royal Navy.

Yet critics believe the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) presides over a funding mismatch - either training too many people for the jobs available or not training enough people with the right kind of skills.

Sir Digby, the former CBI leader, told BBC Radio Four’s File On 4: “It is what I call the British Leyland model - you put a lot of money in at the top and an Austin Allegro comes out at the bottom.

“In our industry, it’s a waste of time because most of the people that apply to us for a job have reached the same level of education that the scheme trains people to reach,” she says, adding that the bar has been set too low for government help with skills training.

The LSC maintains the scheme is working well and pointed File On 4 to Crewe Alexandra Football Club.

The League One side is now getting its stewards trained under the new scheme - including people who have been doing the job for 20 to 30 years.

It is highly likely that of the 130 students enrolling to train in basic plumbing skills at Grimsby Institute - there will only be 50 vacancies for the apprenticeships to get the vital on-the-job training as a professional plumber.

Colleges get funded per student and it is in their interests to recruit students regardless of the local job market.

I contacted the council and hospital’s subcontractors about a placement – all say exactly the same thing; in the last year or so, they can’t get insurance for people who aren’t qualified, so they can’t take me on.

I’ve decided to go in a different direction now, but I went back to the college for a couple of hours to print some stuff off and have a chat with a couple of the lecturers about the place. There was the usual spouting of figures - you know “of former polytechs based in the Kings Road we have the highest ratio of students to carpet in this postcode”. That kind of thing.

But what struck me most, not having been in for a couple of months, was just what a weird, un-academic atmosphere the place had. I was trying to work in the computer room. I remember about 3 months ago, I quickly and discreetly answered my vibrating mobile and someone was on me in a second, waving at the “No Mobiles” sign even though I was almost whispering and there was lots of noise. But when I went back, there was one “special” guy, not even logged on, just sitting there making moo-ing noises. And in the far corner, 3 BIG dudes listening to rap music, loudly, through a tinny mobile phone.

When I asked if anyone was going to tell moo-ing man or rap-dudes to shut up, it was a case of “he’s special so we’re not allowed to interfere (even though he doesn’t even have a PC account)”. Oh, and sometimes he makes barking noises, as the girl the other side of me told me. “It’s well annoying, can’t concentrate or nuffink”, as another message appeared on her MSN…oh, and the answer to the big dudes was “would YOU tell them to turn it off”?

Now, I’m not tarring ALL departments and students with the same brush, but just before Christmas (sorry, winterval or whatever it is now) I spoke to a woman in the queue at the cafe who said she’d just quit because every time she tried to discipline or kick someone disruptive or lazy off the course, she was told that as many people as possible had to pass, no matter what.

And for the record, I do know that it’s not always been like that - 10 years ago, I did an “Access Course” in order to top up some qualifications, and did science, French, maths and some wiffly thing which I can’t even remember but was easy and everyone had to do it. But back then, the place was much better. They had labs and people who wanted to be there. A fancy new facade on the building and a logo designed by a 4 year old doesn’t really make things better inside.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is Blair’s vision - 50% in higher education.

UPDATE: I just found that TVU appears in a leauge table. It comes 109th out of 109

EDIT: I agree with Marc, the commenter below. The LRC is better and there are more PCs (albeit with a ridiculously small amount of RAM struggling to run XP Pro in “full pretty graphics” mode but with refresh at 60Hz so you can’t help but have a splitting headache and epilepsy after ten minutes).

UPDATE: Here’s a couple of my first projects from year one, before I realised that putting effort in counts for nothing as the course it either pass or fail. So the 97% is the same as 35%.
Here’s a “measurement” and basic services project of the house I was living in at the time, using Google Sketchup, which is an excellent, free and very easy-to-get-to-grips-with CAD package.

Here’s the Bathroom Project

And here’s the bathroom “lifted out” of the house.

…and finally! Here’s a video for the Presentation project (a crossover of Key Skills and the actual course). This is the project for which some people were allowed to nick something from the internet, print it out, and read it out on the day. And the idea was that you had to get within 1 minute of the alloted time. Several were 3 minutes short.
One person, who did an OK presentation, but got it totally and utterly wrong with regards to what a direct and indirect hot water system (ie: the whole point of the course), stil passed that section. As did the “click her for more info” person mentioned above.

Anyway, this was my contribution (and yes, in time honoured fashion, I deleted the “good” version, which doesn’t have me stumbling in the “sit down and read from the book” scene).

Categories: Politics, education