Just need to rant about this, as to be honest, it has pissed me off royally.
As many of you know, I havn\'t exactly had the smoothest ride through life for the past few years but I have managed to pull through the worst and things are going better than they were.
One of the main reasons I was able to do this, was through college councilor support. I had been appointed to see somebody on a regular basis last year, and she really helped me. Even just as somebody to talk to, who wasn\'t connected by family.
I was able to see her whenever I wanted and recieved loads of advice and support (she got me out of most of my financial troubles, and helped ease alot of the family stuff, meaning I could get back on track with education and that was really suffering a blow due to it all.
Well, things have heated up again (I don\'t want to go over it, as thats not the issue here) and I really wanted to sit with the woman and just have a chat. Even a half hour would have been fantastic.
So I asked my tutor today about it, and it turns out the college have withdrawn funding for Higher Education student support from the mentoring/councilor team.
I sat and talked to my tutor about everything and he was able to listen, but even said that what he could do was in no means possible to what the woman I was seeing could do.
Now if a HE student needs support they have to see their tutor, who then refers you to student services, which then pass me to a GP (external) who then pass me onto an external support \'group\'.
Now is it just me or does this seem more bother than it is actually worth for the college?
So now it is going to take weeks to set up (after the new year according to student services) what I could easily access in ten minutes with the old system.
Also apparently tens of students have been asking for the support, but it\'s just not there anymore.
Sorry if this seems a bit of a selfish rant, it\'s not meant to be. But if even one student can be helped through really shitty circumstances and get back on track with the education as quickly as possible, then the funding is worth it?
And the biggest blow is, the mentoring team is still on site, but can only help FE students!
Ggrrrr.
(Good thing is though, if enough students want/need the help, the tutors will be running petitions to get the funding back.)
As many of you know, I havn\'t exactly had the smoothest ride through life for the past few years but I have managed to pull through the worst and things are going better than they were.
One of the main reasons I was able to do this, was through college councilor support. I had been appointed to see somebody on a regular basis last year, and she really helped me. Even just as somebody to talk to, who wasn\'t connected by family.
I was able to see her whenever I wanted and recieved loads of advice and support (she got me out of most of my financial troubles, and helped ease alot of the family stuff, meaning I could get back on track with education and that was really suffering a blow due to it all.
Well, things have heated up again (I don\'t want to go over it, as thats not the issue here) and I really wanted to sit with the woman and just have a chat. Even a half hour would have been fantastic.
So I asked my tutor today about it, and it turns out the college have withdrawn funding for Higher Education student support from the mentoring/councilor team.
I sat and talked to my tutor about everything and he was able to listen, but even said that what he could do was in no means possible to what the woman I was seeing could do.
Now if a HE student needs support they have to see their tutor, who then refers you to student services, which then pass me to a GP (external) who then pass me onto an external support \'group\'.
Now is it just me or does this seem more bother than it is actually worth for the college?
So now it is going to take weeks to set up (after the new year according to student services) what I could easily access in ten minutes with the old system.
Also apparently tens of students have been asking for the support, but it\'s just not there anymore.
Sorry if this seems a bit of a selfish rant, it\'s not meant to be. But if even one student can be helped through really shitty circumstances and get back on track with the education as quickly as possible, then the funding is worth it?
And the biggest blow is, the mentoring team is still on site, but can only help FE students!
Ggrrrr.
(Good thing is though, if enough students want/need the help, the tutors will be running petitions to get the funding back.)
It\'s always good to have someone to talk to that aren\'t too involved. Just someone that listened helped me much more than I ever thought it would.