Let me paint the average picture of adult further education for you....step 1: get excited by a degree, all the possibilities...the nerdiness...the minutae...step 2: first day in class spent doing roll call for 40 minures, followed by a lecturer trying to turn a pc on...finally gets it working, only for you realise theyll be doing a joint in person lecture + online lecture to save costs....step 3: you cant understand a word theyre saying as no one from admin vetted their english speaking ability (or more likely were the cheapest in a pool of candidates)...step 4:your course notes are outsourced to youtube videos and mooc links. Step 5: teacher announces a class quiz is coming up and not to worry because you can use chatgpt to answer its questions. Step 5: class is paused because a student needs spoon feeding every step of their classwork.
This is a summary of my actual experience doing a technical certification in Australia (and mirrored by others who have done proper degrees too), if youre not going to a top shelf institute or dont vet every teacher for every subhect, i can wholeheartedly say, fuck further education in 2025.
Are you describing the same further education provided to "regular" age college kids in Australia? If so, wow.
Although not surprising. My 19 y/o niece goes to a university in Florida and even though she lives on campus, she only has a dozen in person classes per semester. Nearly everything is still online. It's like they never undid covid.
No, this isn't University (though that can be patchy). Under the Abbott government, he decided to gut TAFE (the government run Technical And Further Education) and put in a whole bunch of privately run VET colleges. They are almost universally awful and were designed to bring in overseas students who used it as a springboard for permanent residency.
The current government is doing a major crack down on them.
Its hortible...if the institutes conducted online classes like they had even an ounce of tech awareness (ie invested in a bunch of elgato gear + lighting) it might be excusable or tolerable. But tbh its a horrible format
Im describing TAFE, but a colleague at work who recently graduated in engineering at macq uni complained about understanding teachers which imo is the worst of the points i listed.
I did a TAFE course back in 2007 (a CCNA) and I was impressed with the first year, but swapped teachers in the second year and was absolutely appalled by the low quality.
I would imagine there's still enormous variability in 2025. It sounds like your course was even worse, possibly because it didn't have such a big hands on component and could offer an online version.
If you are in Australia and using a vocational college, then this is what you'll get. Try doing a course with UNE.
UNE is a great option if you're looking to enter university as a mature-age student. The requirements differ widely between universities for mature-age entry, with some of the Go8 universities excluding mature-age students from certain degrees altogether.
This is news to me. Which subjects and which Go8 universities do this?
USYD's website states that mature-age entry students are only eligible for a select set of courses: https://www.sydney.edu.au/study/applying/admission-pathways/...
Being fair, they do make it sound as though you can enter a degree you're eligible for, and then apply to transfer to another degree after a year of study. If you're transferring to a similar degree, your completed course units would probably count towards your total required elective units.
There are ways of getting into those courses without going through the Mature Age Scheme. Mature age students just don't get preferential treatment.