Education Opportunities April 23, 2010
Posted by gmbmfb in : education, job , 9commentsAnother fantastic benefit of my new job is that they offer further education/training opportunities, in which they financially support 100% as long as it fits within my career path. There is a Marketing Management Certificate program I’d love to take through distance education, and the only thing that has been stopping me is money. I didn’t want to take out student loans again! AND I also wanted to keep on working full-time. So my plan was to eventually save up that money.
But now that there is the chance that I could get the program 100% paid for by my employer? That would be amazing. I’m not going to bring it up until after my probation period is over, but I think that it would be really cool if it were approved (the pre-requisites are that it has to be within my career path and help me advance my career, or give me certification needed for my job – oh and the time commitment has to be OK’d by everyone – which shouldn’t be a problem since it would be distance education). I could take a few classes at a time and in a couple of years I’d have a Management Certificate to my name, which would make me a more attractive candidate when I want to take that next step in my career.
I’ve e-mailed the program coordinator at the school to get a bit more information. Even if this program doesn’t get approved by my job or if they are only able to give me partial funding, I’m still going to do it eventually. I think that for my career objectives, this certificate program is more advantageous and more applicable to me than quitting my job and going back to school for my 4-year degree.
Looking towards the future: more education needed September 10, 2009
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One of my life goals is to own my own business / work for myself. I’m not really sure what kind of business, exactly. But definitely not doing design contracts. I’d LOVE to open up a rock climbing gym (with a little store and a little coffee shop in it). I’d also like to run a B&B or be a landlord … or open my own niche sports store. Whatever it is, it’s going to be something I’m passionate about.
No matter what I want to do, it will require more education. I’d like to get my business degree, but the thought of going back to school for 4 or 5 years is not appealing to me, and I really doubt I’d do it. I’ve already done 5 years of post-secondary education (and have 1/2 of a degree and a 2-year diploma to show for it). From my diploma, I have a marketing/communication/design background, so what I really want to learn are business fundamentals and applied skills. Which is why I was thinking of getting another 2-year diploma in business.
I’ve been looking at local colleges in the Lower Mainland, as well as on the island. Ideally I could do my diploma part-time so I could continue to work (and save up money for my business venture). Or even through correspondence so that I have the ability to move anywhere I want. It would take longer to complete, but I’m okay with that. I’ll need that time to save money and get my ideas all in line anyway.
Most 2-year programs I’ve been looking at cost around $8,000-10,000. Pricey. Thankfully I can utilize the Lifelong Learning Plan and withdraw from my RRSPs penalty-free if I choose to (although that $ was earmarked for a down payment for my first place). It would definitely beat taking out student loans though. And I really don’t want to go down that road again.
All of this is a few years into the future, once we’re back and we have figured out what we want to do. But it’s nice to think about now, so that I feel a little more stable in my long-term plans.
My friend who is out of an education August 18, 2009
Posted by gmbmfb in : education, miscellaneous , add a commentSo my friend who’s program got canceled a few days ago … he told me that they had a meeting with their professors, and the teachers are going to leave the school, get the program accredited on their own, and open up their own design school. Ballsy! So instead of him starting school next month, they’ll start up in January. They’ve spent years creating the curriculum, so they’re qualified – and now it’s just about getting studio space. Wow, that’s just insane. I really hope they can pull this off, because my friend is a talented designer.
He said he’s going to spend the next few months trying to scrounge up design contracts and hopefully save some money. But the job market is tough out there, and he didn’t expect to be exposed to it for another year. So my fingers are crossed for him!
Friend is out of an education August 13, 2009
Posted by gmbmfb in : education, miscellaneous , 1 comment so far
4 or 5 of my former classmates have been laid off at some point this year. They all worked in media – whether it was a cameraman, or audio sound booth, or on-air personality, or script writer, etc. The market is tough out there, and everyone is trying to cut back.
Well, I just found out yesterday that another classmate – who actually went back to school in order to sharpen his skills and kind of avoid this recession – is beginning to realize that he can’t escape the lagging economy, no matter where he hides. His 2-year program got canceled, 1 year into it. He signed up for this program with the intention of getting a diploma in a specialized field, and now? That’s just not going to happen. The school has run out of money and cannot fund the program.
When he told me, my first thought was: where’s the accountability? These students were halfway done their program, and they were putting their careers on hold, or they moved from other cities to study in this program. And now it’s just disappeared 3 weeks before school is supposed to resume. I can understand canceling the program for students going into their 1st year, but it seems like they could have taken the loss on the program costs in order to see these 2nd year students through to the end of their program. Because now they’ve just wasted a year of their lives, and a year of tuition. And that school was not cheap.
The option they gave him was that he could transfer to 2nd year at a school in Vancouver. But then he’d have to spend the money to move, quit his part-time job (and find a new one), and live in a much more expensive city! All in less than 3 weeks!
I feel so bad for him right now!
What are the pros and cons of free post-secondary education? September 27, 2007
Posted by gmbmfb in : education , add a commentI was reading Chitown’s blog Windy City Blues today through my RSS feed, and she was talking about what her financial plan was now that she’s done law school. I got to about the point in her post where she mentioned her student loan debt: $207k. Holy crap!!! It makes my $17k of debt look so small next to that amount … but perhaps it’s all relative to the careers that we have. Obviously she’ll make a lot more money than me since she went to law school, and all I have is a half-finished marketing degree and a college diploma in communications.
It makes me envious of other countries that offer free post-secondary education like France and Germany (I think). But I was reading up a little on government-run Universities, and apparently people think that the level of education offered there is lower than what you would find at a private institution. Also, an old teammate of mine told me that becoming a doctor is a lot easier in some countries in Europe because you don’t need to take all the fluff general classes – you just go straight into the classes you’ll actually need, and apparently that drastically reduces the amount of time spent in school. By years.
Anyway, I honestly don’t know much about the pros and cons of free post-secondary education, or really even on how other countries run their educational system, and I couldn’t find very helpful articles on the internet about it. Then again, I didn’t really look that hard. I wonder if anyone out there knows of a website that explains the pros and cons?
What’s the value of education? March 15, 2007
Posted by gmbmfb in : education , add a commentI am not a University graduate. I have 2 1/2 yrs. completed towards a BA. I was on a full athletic scholarship, but I left after my 2nd year. I guess I was homesick and burnt out from training so intensely for so many years. Looking back, it wasn’t anything I couldn’t suck up for another 2 years … but back then, quitting and going home seemed like a matter of life or death. I was such an idiot!
And I can’t go back there and finish up my degree because I refuse to play elite level sports again. I still play 3 or 4 times a week, and I still go to the gym almost every day, but I don’t obsessively train for 5-6 hrs a day like I used to (in the summer it was 8 hrs/day!!!). I think that might kill me! Anyway, to go back without a scholarship, as an international student, it would cost me $36,000 for tuition and board alone.
Of course, it’s easy to reflect on how stupid I was, now that I’ve taken myself far away from that situation. And it’s not like I fully regret quitting, because I wouldn’t be where I am today if I had stayed … but I’m upset that I had a FULL SCHOLARSHIP (i.e. free money), and passed it up because I believed I was too tired to train, and too homesick to continue.
I have a college diploma hanging up on the wall behind me from a 2-year program I graduated from last year. At least that’s something. And it’s transferable, so I only have to take 2 more years to earn my B.A. in Communication Studies. That was the plan. I have an acceptance letter from Athabasca University’s distance education program sitting in a folder at home, and I had every intention of taking classes as soon as I gained full-time employment after college. So a year later, why haven’t I taken a single class?
The big barrier is money. Isn’t that always the case? :) Other priorities came up for me, namely paying off my student loans. And now, saving up for a down payment on a condo. It’s approximately $650 for each class through Athabasca, all distance-ed, so I could still continue to work full-time. I need 20 classes. $650 x 20 = $13,000.
I really really REALLY don’t want to take out student loans again if I don’t have to. So is it worth it? Is it worth $13,000 for a university degree? Is it really going to help me out in the job force?
The job I have now required a university degree and 3 years of experience – I have neither and got the job. So can experience outweigh education? Or was it just a fluke that I got hired here? In the future, are my resumes going to be tossed out as soon as they’re received because I don’t fit the educational mold they’re after?
If an employer is looking for someone with a degree, and all I have is a diploma and a bunch of experience, is that employer going to pick the person with the degree and little to no experience? Because if that’s the case, I don’t want to get screwed over, and I’ll go get that degree. But if it’s just a matter of digging a little more and applying to more places before an employer decides to considers me, then maybe it’s not worth it. What do you think?
