FETAC Question/FRUSTRATION

metaral

I found out yesterday some information about why I wasn't offered my first choice course. The tutor on my FETAC course made me ring about it despite me thinking there was no point. It turns out that the college was only sent my FETAC Record of Achievement and not a full award. The woman I spoke to at the college said that they couldn't offer me a place on the course unless I had a full award. I told her they should have been sent one and she checked the record of achievement for my results and said that yes I had all the requirements and with the results I had that "I should have been made an offer".

That really makes me sick. And now I'm worried I won't get any offers for the vacant place courses due to the same reason. I was offered a place at Griffith college though so I'm not sure what exactly is going on. Do most colleges accept you with only a Record of Achievement (if it has all of the modules for a full cert)? Or what? My college (who have had lots of people use their FETAC certs to go onto third level education) seemed to know everything to do so I left everything up to them. It's possible they made a mistake but I really don't know what happened. Finding out you should have gotten your first choice but didn't due to some stupid mistake made somewhere is very disheartening.

Does anyone know anything about this type of thing? I only found out yesterday evening so I'm going to be ringing about it today and try and sort something out. But as she said, if I got it sorted out she could only offer me a place at this stage if there were places on the course still available (which is unlikely).

I'm still in a rush to sort it out though in order to make it possible to be offered the other courses I'm waiting to hear about Friday (2nd round). I just hope it's not too late.

Anyone hear of this sort of thing or know anything about it?

ultanmac

I went through a similar situation last year. I needed to combine modules in order to get the full award, which I needed to get into my course. When Fetac sent my results, they hadn't combined them(despite me giving them several reminders). So I got in contact with the course co-ordinator at the university and explained the situation to him, and made sure it was ok for Fetac to phone him and explain. Which Fetac didn't do in spite of my asking on more than one occasion. Luckily enough, the lecturer phoned them to find out what was going on.When they confirmed that I had a full award, he gave me a place.
My advice to you is that you should get on the phone(not email) to everyone involved and badger the hell out of them until they sort it. You should definitley find out the name of the person who's head of the course and get in contact with them. College lecturers understand how crappy the administrative bodies are as well as students do. So you should at least make them aware of your situation. Theres always the possibility that if you don't get your place then you'll be on a reserve list in case anyone drops out at the start(people ALWAYS drop out at the start).
And the reason Griffith offered you a place is that they're a private college and will take anyone who's willing to pay their extortionate fees.

Best of luck!!!

metaral

Yeah turns out it was the exact same situation as you said - FETAC didn't combine the modules for a full cert, so they only sent out a record of achievement - with all of the modules on it. Anyway long story short - rang everywhere - and it's likely that it is too late in the game to have anything changed. Even for the 2nd round. FETAC are going to send out new information to the CAO but they said the latest info was already sent out and that's what the CAO will go by. CAO said it was worth a shot but couldn't guarantee anything.

Yeah I wasn't aware of Griffith college and their fee's until after I'd applied to them, so am not going there either way. Can't afford it.

Going to ring my 2nd choice course tomorrow and explain the situation and see if they can do anything for me. Hopefully they'll be more helpful than my first choice college.

Wish me luck.

cyberwit

I am sorry to here what has happened to you. I applied to college last year through FETAC and I got the first course choice. You need a FULL FETAC AWARD Label 2 at least (8 Modules). A Record of Achievement will not suffice.

When you got awarded your certificate if it stated it was a Record of Achievement then that will not suffice for entry into College or University.

Some colleges and universities also require you to have gotten either a certain amount of distinctions or down certain modules.

Hope this is helpful.

metaral wrote:

Yeah turns out it was the exact same situation as you said - FETAC didn't combine the modules for a full cert, so they only sent out a record of achievement - with all of the modules on it. Anyway long story short - rang everywhere - and it's likely that it is too late in the game to have anything changed. Even for the 2nd round. FETAC are going to send out new information to the CAO but they said the latest info was already sent out and that's what the CAO will go by. CAO said it was worth a shot but couldn't guarantee anything.

Yeah I wasn't aware of Griffith college and their fee's until after I'd applied to them, so am not going there either way. Can't afford it.

Going to ring my 2nd choice course tomorrow and explain the situation and see if they can do anything for me. Hopefully they'll be more helpful than my first choice college.

Wish me luck.

metaral

Yeah I'm aware of that. It was a mistake by FETAC. I do have a full award and I have 8 distinctions so I definitely should have been able to get in. The lady I spoke to at the college said that I should have been offered a place had the mistake not happened. Anyway it's been fixed now and I just have to wait and see if I get any offers tomorrow morning. I'm feeling hopeful.