Hi there can anyone please give me their experience of studying full time at tafe as a mature aged student? I'm a 38 yr old single mum of 3 kids ages 19, 18 and 11 and I have recently found myself unemployed after many years of stable work. I'm thinking about using this time to up-skill and get a diploma (I only have Cert 3's) It has been many many years since I have studied and I have never studied at a campus before, only online, so it's all a bit overwhelming and daunting! Now that my children are older, I'm thinking it will be a good opportunity to utilise this time of unemployment and the fee-free tafe to gain a more suitable qualification but I'm terrified of going back to school as a mature aged adult!
4 Replies
You will be fine, most tafe courses are made up of more mature students.
Learning is now considered 'life long' throughout your career & employers expect you'll upgrade skills regularly. So there'll be a mix of ages. The days of students all being 18 are gone so shake of the worry and do it!
I'm looking at doing one of the fee free courses as well.
TAFE will have recruitment and orientation info on their websites or someone you can contact.
The last course I did had people of all ages from 18 to 50s. You'll be fine
I'm 42 and my class is made up of people from 17 to 65! You will be fine. It's really common now to see all ages at Tafe. They are really supportive as well and have plenty of ways to get help with assignments etc if you're struggling to get your head back into studying.