Springboard courses. Free college courses sponsored by the Irish Government

CBear1993

Aleece2020 wrote: »

Applied for a course with a listed deadline of the 28th of September; it allowed me to go through with the application and submit all documentation. Seemed very smooth.

Description on the providers website said applications were due the 31st of August and course was due to start September 7th. I imagine it changed due to COVID-19 lockdown?

Wouldn’t hold my breath, the organization and communication from a lot of the designated contact details for the colleges on springboard has been nothing short of appalling.

un5byh7sqpd2x0

CBear1993 wrote: »

Wouldn’t hold my breath, the organization and communication from a lot of the designated contact details for the colleges on springboard has been nothing short of appalling.

Agreed. There was no proper module description for my course but the title sounded interesting, or any module listings at all. No information on required hours or anything. 15 mins into the first lecture the other day I knew it wasn’t for me. Far far too basic so I’m no longer continuing. Luckily I haven’t paid my fees yet.

py

Got my timetable for the postgrad course from DCU yesterday. It's getting a bit more real as the days tick by and more and more emails come in.

This is it

py wrote: »

Got my timetable for the postgrad course from DCU yesterday. It's getting a bit more real as the days tick by and more and more emails come in.

I've an open day tomorrow and first lecture on Tuesday. I'm crazy busy with work, a child to look after and lots of other things on the go, slightly regretting signing up but I know it's short term pain for, hopefully, long term gain.

Aleece2020

CBear1993 wrote: »

Wouldn’t hold my breath, the organization and communication from a lot of the designated contact details for the colleges on springboard has been nothing short of appalling.

Had a look at it this morning; apparently the course provider has at least downloaded the application so that bodes well - or at least I hope so as I doubt they'd look at it if the deadline was wrong on the site.

ballybro

Due to start my first online tutorial with NUIG on Saturday .Have held off paying the 10% fees balance till I see what its like.If i decide after the first couple of weeks that the course is not for me or not as relavant as I had hoped and dont want to continue would I still be expected to pay the 10 % of what have others done .

keyboard_cat

ballybro wrote: »

Due to start my first online tutorial with NUIG on Saturday .Have held off paying the 10% fees balance till I see what its like.If i decide after the first couple of weeks that the course is not for me or not as relavant as I had hoped and dont want to continue would I still be expected to pay the 10 % of what have others done .

I’m pretty sure once your register for the course you have to pay the fees. Not sure what would happen if you drop out I would assume it may affect your springboard funding and then nuig might come looking for the 100%?
Either way it’s a bit late for you but for anyone thinking of doing the same next year maybe email the lecturers and get a better idea of the course content before accepting your offer.
Accepting a course and trialing It for a few weeks because it was cheap or free is not ideal as you could be taking a spot on the course from someone who really wanted it.

Aleece2020

Anyone have any experience as to when you get replies from course providers as to if you're accepted or not? Application was viewed by two different people from the University a few days ago but so far no word. I would normally agree that it takes time for this, but given we're already in October I imagine I'll miss the start of the course if I don't hear back soon.

This is it

Aleece2020 wrote: »

Anyone have any experience as to when you get replies from course providers as to if you're accepted or not? Application was viewed by two different people from the University a few days ago but so far no word. I would normally agree that it takes time for this, but given we're already in October I imagine I'll miss the start of the course if I don't hear back soon.

At this stage I'd be on the phone and firing off an email, I'd imagine most courses have started or will be starting next week at the latest

touts

Aleece2020 wrote: »

Anyone have any experience as to when you get replies from course providers as to if you're accepted or not? Application was viewed by two different people from the University a few days ago but so far no word. I would normally agree that it takes time for this, but given we're already in October I imagine I'll miss the start of the course if I don't hear back soon.

Some are better than others. Trinity & UCD are both excellent in their communication and explanation if you don't get accepted. UCC basically give a one sentence "You were not accepted" response. It didn't really bother me because a day later I was accepted onto a similar course in UL which probably suited better but if UCC was my only application I would be seriously annoyed with their attitude.

py

keyboard_cat wrote: »

I’m pretty sure once your register for the course you have to pay the fees. Not sure what would happen if you drop out I would assume it may affect your springboard funding and then nuig might come looking for the 100%?
Either way it’s a bit late for you but for anyone thinking of doing the same next year maybe email the lecturers and get a better idea of the course content before accepting your offer.
Accepting a course and trialing It for a few weeks because it was cheap or free is not ideal as you could be taking a spot on the course from someone who really wanted it.

Just to follow up on this. We had our DCU intro meeting last week and we are required at various stages to acknowledge our participation on the course with Springboard. Failure to do so has an effect on funding for that particular insitution.

djan

Has anyone who is on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment been accepted onto a course? What implications would this have? I have found some info suggesting that you have to move to the standard jobseekers etc. instead. Thanks for any help!

shanec1928

touts wrote: »

Some are better than others. Trinity & UCD are both excellent in their communication and explanation if you don't get accepted. UCC basically give a one sentence "You were not accepted" response. It didn't really bother me because a day later I was accepted onto a similar course in UL which probably suited better but if UCC was my only application I would be seriously annoyed with their attitude.

Not that it matters to you now. But they are required to give detailed feedback. If they the college don’t reply you then contact springboard who will contact the college on your behalf and you will receive feedback then.

Feeling very overwhelmed after week one.

Doing a postgraduate diploma and my online lectures were filled with 100+ students asking very technical questions and talking about programmes and concepts I've never even heard of setting myself up on Udemy tonight and have asked two lecturers for any particular Udemy courses they might recommend.

The reality is definitely setting in for me today, but hopefully the high standard means I'll come out of the course with good skills.

BelovedAunt

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Feeling very overwhelmed after week one.

Doing a postgraduate diploma and my online lectures were filled with 100+ students asking very technical questions and talking about programmes and concepts I've never even heard of setting myself up on Udemy tonight and have asked two lecturers for any particular Udemy courses they might recommend.

The reality is definitely setting in for me today, but hopefully the high standard means I'll come out of the course with good skills.

Yeah it’s tough going. I’m doing a data science one myself and thinking of packing it in tbh. It won’t really help my current job anyway so no huge motivation to stick with it.

Jet Black

Good news for those on pup.

mp3ireland2

BelovedAunt wrote: »

Yeah it’s tough going. I’m doing a data science one myself and thinking of packing it in tbh. It won’t really help my current job anyway so no huge motivation to stick with it.

My lectures seem fine but the assigments, I don't know where to start. Figure assigments are 50% and continious assement 50% so hopefully I can keep up with lectures and assigments make more sense later on, worst case just do decent exams based on lectures and bad assigments and be enough to pass hopefully! (Biopharma processing) I've 3 1 hour lectures a week and each with an assigment due after Christmas, don't think i could handle some of the full on courses!

CBear1993

That sounds ok, 3x1 hours per week.

Didn’t see many courses like that on springboard

mp3ireland2

CBear1993 wrote: »

That sounds ok, 3x1 hours per week.

Didn’t see many courses like that on springboard

Yeah all remote learning, and even at that sometimes I feel sorry for myself! SO can't imagine some of the crazy hours that some people are expected to put in, I've 7-9 on a Monday and 6-7 on a Thursday. Have to do the literature reviews which i'm not looking forward to at all but I'm getting off lightly I think!

CBear1993

Has anyone done anything through code institute before?

They have a level 6 software development, all online. Bit skeptical as the other software development courses offered that have started were all level 7/8/9.

I have a job and career just wanted something to build on or have on my CV to move out of my industry, not too sure how much pulling power a level 6 would have?

This is it

I don't work in software development but I think you'd find it tough to get your foot in the door with no experience and a level 6. Not to say it won't happen, just that I think you'd be better off with level 7+.

If you're already into coding and have a portfolio, projects, etc. you've already worked on then I'd presume, maybe wrongly, that the education side might not matter as much.

CBear1993

Good stuff thanks, was thinking the same. Reluctant to go below a level 8 in general as that's what I have to my name...

tv3tg4

I got and registered for a course in dcu.
They never sent me an email about the start date. Only found out today that it had started a few weeks ago

Esse85

tv3tg4 wrote: »

I got and registered for a course in dcu.
They never sent me an email about the start date. Only found out today that it had started a few weeks ago

I wonder did they enter your email details wrong like they did with mine and as a result I heard nothing until I had to contact them to find out what's happening.

red face dave

tv3tg4 wrote: »

I got and registered for a course in dcu.
They never sent me an email about the start date. Only found out today that it had started a few weeks ago

I had a few problems with reg for DCU also but got it sorted after a few emails. You probably wouldn't have missed to much as its all on Loop anyway

Cardamom and mimosa

Hi has anyone had experience with not getting a place on a Springboard course?
Im a teacher whose fed up with precarious and casual gig work. I applied to Springboard courses related to my undergrad degree but in an area unrelated to teaching, I didnt even get a reply to my application. Interview dates have passed.
Just dont know where I went wrong?

This is it

Cardamom and mimosa wrote: »

Hi has anyone had experience with not getting a place on a Springboard course?
Im a teacher whose fed up with precarious and casual gig work. I applied to Springboard courses related to my undergrad degree but in an area unrelated to teaching, I didnt even get a reply to my application. Interview dates have passed.
Just dont know where I went wrong?

You should/should have followed up with the course contact when you hadn't heard anything back from them. Plenty here didn't get their first choice but any who applied for 2+ got a place as far as I remember.

Cardamom and mimosa

This is it wrote: »

You should/should have followed up with the course contact when you hadn't heard anything back from them. Plenty here didn't get their first choice but any who applied for 2+ got a place as far as I remember.

Thank you, I will contact them this week.

Bartyman

Deleted User wrote: »

Feeling very overwhelmed after week one.

Doing a postgraduate diploma and my online lectures were filled with 100+ students asking very technical questions and talking about programmes and concepts I've never even heard of setting myself up on Udemy tonight and have asked two lecturers for any particular Udemy courses they might recommend.

The reality is definitely setting in for me today, but hopefully the high standard means I'll come out of the course with good skills.

Stick with it, I was in the same boat in January with the Data Analytics course, it gets easier, this is from someone who left school 45 years ago.

Nearly died when the lecturer threw up the 1st slides on coding.

I'm now in the final semester having passed all the exams to date, also found Udemy a great resource, YouTube also has some great tutorials.

dazzday

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Little perk for doing springboard - 1 year free access to Irish times