Warwick Gateway to HE
Our FREE part-time Gateway to HE offers you the chance to see if study is for you.
We teach the classes in an informal style, allowing you to settle back into study. The course is designed to fit around work and family commitments, whilst developing your skills, knowledge and confidence.
You will meet and work with others who will be embarking on a similar journey to your own, in an environment designed for adult learners.
The course is designed for adults living in the local area and we don't ask for previous qualifications, and successful completion* guarantees you a place on the University of Warwick’s part-time BA (Hons) Social Studies Degree.
| Starts |
November 2018 Gateway - Tuesday 20 November 2018 - 4 June 2019 |
| Day and time |
November 2018 Gateway: Tuesdays, 10am -1pm |
| Fee | Free course. View potential additional fees. |
| Venue | November course - Westwood Teaching Centre, Westwood Campus, University of Warwick |
| Entry requirements |
Flexible entry requirements, consideration given for non-traditional qualifications, work and life experience. Applicants are interviewed by the course selector, and there will be a short written exercise. Read past student Amy's blog on her interview experience. *Successful completion (good attendance and marks in assessed work) guarantees a place on the BA Hons Social Studies degree |
| Length | 20 weeks |
| Contact |
Please use our Contact page to send us an enquiry or call for an informal conversation with the course tutor |
Watch current student, Alison, describe her Gateway experience so far. This video was filmed in February 2017.
Benefits of this course
- You can study part-time at your own pace around work and family commitments
- You will develop skills, knowledge and confidence to study at one of the top universities in the world
- The Gateway course is an equivalent level of study to Access or A-levels
- Successful completion (attendance throughout the programme and passing all 3 pieces of assessed work), guarantees a place on the BA (Hons) Social Studies degree
- We will also endorse successful students who intend to apply to other universities
Areas of study
The course is intended to prepare you for higher education study by:
- Introducing key concepts within the social sciences
- Introducing important ‘social science’ disciplines
- Embedding key skills for HE study
In the first 4 weeks, you will visit the University library, and learn study skills such as referencing.
This course develops from your own experiences – encouraging you to think about your own identity. The course looks at wider issues that impact on you – exploring themes around the local, the national and the global environment. We start by drawing very much from your personal experiences – using these experiences to introduce ‘academic’ ways of thinking and talking about familiar and local contexts. We then move onto wider social themes such as shopping, work, the environment, before widening still into global issues – challenging you to consider the relationship between the global and the local.
Sample topics covered:
Media
Food
Housing
Education
Shopping
Work
Care
Environment
Migration
Globalisation
Student Profile
This video was filmed in June 2015. All opinions expressed in the video are the student's own.
Tutor
Dr Steve Gascoigne
Joining the Centre for Lifelong Learning is both an exciting and nervous time, especially for students returning to education after a long period of time or students who are taking the next step in furthering their education. To help with your next step, our students have come up with their top tips on joining CLL.
"Never give up hope, you can achieve more than you think right at this point! Stay positive, drink coffee – lots of it!"
Current 2+2 student at Coventry College, starting the 2nd year.
"Learning grid in Uni house is a great place to study. It’s generally quiet and often got pcs available."
2+2 Degree Pathway Graduate 2018
"If you have any issues or concerns whether personal or medical talk to Elaine Moore, [CLL's Student Welfare Officer] she does help! Don't suffer in silence that can affect your grades. Also, see your personal tutor mine was very helpful."
2+2 Degree Pathway Graduate 2018
"Another top tip is, if you are at a partner college, particularly in year 2, come across to campus when you can so you are familiar with it. Come year 3 you will be glad you did. You can find the study spots that suit you, the best places for a snack and of course all the shortcuts from building to building."
2+2 Degree Pathway Graduate 2018
"Check out the shuttle bus"
2+2 Degree Pathway Graduate 2018
[connects you from Westwood Campus, the home of CLL, to the main campus where your lectures are, study areas, main bus stops and also travels to Canley station if you commute via train.]
"Love the library. It's your new best friend. And librarians know everything.
"Seriously though – book a 1:1 with a librarian early on- they can show you how to do journal searches, use the catalogue, find books etc. which will become extremely useful, broaden your readings, and save you hours when writing on a deadline."
2+2 Degree Pathway Graduate 2018
“Talk to other students when you're feeling unsure and that you're the only one who didn't understand the lecture. You'll usually find they feel the same. + Get to know the students in the year above as they can offer invaluable support and tips.”
2+2 Degree Pathway, starting the 4th (final) year
"Make use of the free ITS training – it’s well worth the time invested could save you time and stress in the long run. I found them really useful: Word long documents, Excel, SPSS, EndNote and particularly OneNote."
2+2 Degree Pathway Graduate 2017, current postgraduate student
More information for students preparing to join CLL can be found on our website.
If you’re considering joining CLL there is still time! Book in for an informal chat with us about your options, http://bit.ly/2vcEn6f or call 02476524617.
Surrey campus is all quiet with the students having finished for the year, and many of the students our office have spent the year helping find a placement are beginning to start their year of work. However, a new module has started for me so it's back to study…
Last month I attended the three-day residential for the compulsory CEIGHE module Challenges of Careers Work in Higher Education. This module looks at an overview of the wider context of where Higher Education careers work takes place. At the residential we looked at a range of topics, from stakeholders, to personal challenges in our roles, to student expectations, as well as wider external factors of labour market and policy influences, and of course economic and political changes (it goes without saying that Brexit unknowns got a mention). It was interesting to look at both the internal and external influencers of challenges myself and my colleagues face in our roles, and how we might look to respond and change to try to keep delivering our services effectively.
There were a mix of people from different Universities at the residential, in a variety of roles, such as Careers Advisors, and staff from areas of Placements and Employer Engagement. Having a chance to connect with others is a great benefit I have found from these residentials so far. You have the opportunity to share best practice and to reflect a bit more on how you, and your place of work, are supporting students. It enables you to sit outside of your own University bubble for a few days and listen to different perspectives. I have also found that it is good for approaching the distance studying, as it helps you to assess and reflect on what you do know and understand already, but also what topics you are less familiar with so that you can place a focus on those areas when it comes to the module reading.
With this being the third module for me now, I do feel it has become less daunting to work out how to approach the studying. I am able to look ahead at what is required for that module, in terms of volume of reading and assignment questions, and begin to plan a little schedule of study. This hasn't come without some trial and error to begin with, when working out how much time is needed for reading and draft writing. However, I realise this is part of the learning curve of returning to study, and I am proud to be nearing the mid-way point now of my diploma.
So assuming this glorious sunshine doesn't make my brain too useless, I am aiming in July to get ahead on plans for assignment number three!
About the author
Rose Leek is a paid blogger for CLL.
I relocated back near my hometown last year in Surrey, after a decade living near the sea in East Kent. I work in a University Employability & Careers Centre, assisting engineering and science students onto a placement year as part of their degree, and providing administrative support to their academic tutors.
I started the Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Education, Information and Guidance in Higher Education (CEIGHE) in October 2017 and am looking forward to developing a wider awareness of the service I work within, and increasing my confidence and understanding.
I have experienced a year with lots of change, and it is both exciting and daunting to be adding studying back into my life. I have never written a blog and my reasoning for doing so is the hope that it will help me to better reflect on, and share, my experience as a CEIGHE student. My course is mainly distance taught, with a few residential workshops per year. I wanted to also try to share the perspective of being a distance student, and how I will (hopefully!) learn to juggle the balance of study, work and home.
I look forward to the journey ahead!
And if all else fails, maybe the cat can do some of my studying for me?
Learning is the "acquisition of knowledge or skill through study, experience or being taught" (Oxford English Dictionary).
My definition, which is perhaps not as concise: "learning is receiving information, making sense of it, understanding it and being able to apply it"
One of the assignments on the CLL Gateway course is to research a topic and present your findings to the class. As I am enjoying learning new things I decided to look at the theory and practise of learning, here are some of the things I found.
It has long been acknowledged that people have learning preferences. Individuals have a better chance of understanding information if it is presented to them in a favourable format. In its simplest form this would be either seeing it, hearing it or doing it themselves.
Neil Fleming wrote extensively about learning theory and describes four main preferences, he uses the acronym VARK:
Visual – Images, photographs, diagrams, video and illustrations.
Auditory – Lectures, podcasts, group discussions, verbal Q+A, recital of key points.
Read/Write – Written text, lists, note taking and further reading
Kinaesthetic – Hands on learning, role play, models, practical experiments
Some people respond well to a blend of these methods, but most have a bias toward one or two preferences. It can be useful to know what your preferences may be, so you can look for the information in a more suitable package e.g. listening to an audiobook rather than reading the text, taking an active part in discussions with your fellow students instead of studying in isolation. Draw diagrams and flow charts to illustrate theories or put theories into context by weaving them into a story of events linked to people. The are many possibilities.
Flemings VARK questionnaire is available to try at: http://vark-learn.com/the-vark-questionnaire/
The research that resonated more with my personal learning was David Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle. Kolb maintains that one cannot learn without first having an Experience. Following this Experience is a period of Reflective Observation where the learner makes sense of the event and gains an understanding of what has happened. Conceptualisation is next, where the learner concludes, makes amendments and forms the idea into a concept to try out in the last stage which is Active Experimentation, applying the new idea to form the next experience. Then start again and the cycle continues.
Having read this theory it's clear to me that I spend a lot of time in Reflective Observation. Its useful to have this insight and now I can plan this into my study time.
There are many more learning style theories to look at, some linked with personality types and some with basic tests that can be done to help identify how you might learn more efficiently.
I will leave you with the same question I started with,
How do you learn?
About the Author
I'm Steve Lock and I'm on the Gateway to Higher Education at CLL. I'm not an academic, I've been employed in practical roles throughout my working life. I've been in the Armed Forces and now work in the Emergency Services. My next personal challenge is education, have a look at my blog to see how I'm getting on…..
Last week I attended the 'Introduction to Guidance Interviewing' residential at Warwick, delivered by AGCAS*. This does not form part of my PG Diploma, but is a good introductory session prior to enrolling (hopefully!) onto the Advanced Guidance Skills module towards the end of my CEIGHE, and AGCAS deliver many of the residentials within the CEIGHE.
I found this introductory course to be an incredibly positive learning experience, and a great opportunity to explore and reflect on how I currently support students in my work.
The course was split into two days. We were a group of six, all engaged in different HE Careers service roles. The first day covered a range of information, such as career theories and models of guidance interviewing. Through role play in the group we were able to start putting new skills to the test. On day two we then each carried out a recorded, and group observed, one-to-one 30 minute guidance interview with a current University of Warwick student, bringing their real concerns and questions to the conversation.
The course was beneficial for reflecting on my current support to students, for testing my interest in more in-depth guidance interviewing, and for the opportunity to network with others involved in HE Careers work.
The course made me reflect on how I currently speak with students, and my dominant focus to give information, a drive to provide practical steps for a student to take in securing a placement. This can be helpful for placements, as students often request suggestions on how to improve their placement prospects, and they have a time limit within the year on securing a role. However, it may not always give a cautious or less confident student time, or the sense that it is a space in which they can, unravel deeper concerns or questions surrounding work experience. It becomes easy to view the placement year as a short-lived early experience of working life. However, at that time in a student's journey a placement year can be a very big decision. Some students have never worked before, some may have never experienced a world outside of home and education. Jumping into a full-time role where their degree knowledge is put to the test, the student is faced with the learning curve of work etiquette and culture, and a whole new routine. Whilst some students throw themselves into the recruitment process and their subsequent placement experience, it can be easy to overlook that a student who seems less engaged about applying for placements may have deeper worries about work experience that they feel nervous to express. Some students may also find it hard to see the placement year in isolation, placing pressure onto themselves about what it means for the bigger picture of their graduate hopes, rather than seeing it as a positive opportunity to gain experience, and learn about the working world.
The course has made me consider how I can approach differently these interactions with students, and not rush straight into information giving. I hope this will enable me to put some of the skills from this course into action, and better develop my support for students in the placement process.
In relation to my CEIGHE, the course was a confidence boost that I am interested in guidance support to students on their career development and awareness. Spending time around students who are looking at placements to gain wider insight and understanding of an area of work, I feel in turn this two-day course provided me with a similar opportunity to gain some insight into different ways of working.
*The Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (www.agcas.org.uk)
About the author
Rose Leek is a paid blogger for CLL.
I relocated back near my hometown last year in Surrey, after a decade living near the sea in East Kent. I work in a University Employability & Careers Centre, assisting engineering and science students onto a placement year as part of their degree, and providing administrative support to their academic tutors.
I started the Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Education, Information and Guidance in Higher Education (CEIGHE) in October 2017 and am looking forward to developing a wider awareness of the service I work within, and increasing my confidence and understanding.
I have experienced a year with lots of change, and it is both exciting and daunting to be adding studying back into my life. I have never written a blog and my reasoning for doing so is the hope that it will help me to better reflect on, and share, my experience as a CEIGHE student. My course is mainly distance taught, with a few residential workshops per year. I wanted to also try to share the perspective of being a distance student, and how I will (hopefully!) learn to juggle the balance of study, work and home.
I look forward to the journey ahead!
And if all else fails, maybe the cat can do some of my studying for me?
Since October most weeks have involved study for the CEIGHE. In March I submitted the first module assignment, and then moved mostly straight onto planning for the second module assignment. As a result I have found myself immersed, mostly throughout, in the balance of study, work and home, so that content for this blog has seemed all around me.
Last week I sat down to write this, and, for the first time, had a complete uncertainty on what to talk about. I left the empty page, thinking something would come to mind over the week, and wondered why I couldn't get in the frame of mind to write the blog.
Today, I realised why. For the first time since October I have been allowing myself a study break over the last fortnight. One advantage of the CEIGHE is that you enrol per module, and in most cases, this is in the order and schedule you want to be studying.
Having completed my final draft for the second assignment a fortnight ago, I had been giving my brain a break. I knew this was a small window to do so. At the end of May I will be submitting the second assignment, and also attending a two-day residential on Guidance Interviewing. Following this I will be enrolling on the third module and attending a three-day residential in June. This will put me back into the busy focus of study. So for now, I have allowed my brain to wander wherever else it wants to, and not to thinking about topics that have been swimming around my mind, such as career theories, student types and employer stakeholders.
The result has been to focus more on home, the leisure of relaxing days out in the sunshine. When I came to write this blog last week I felt I had to write directly about my studies for it to have relevance. However, as a part-time student it's important to show how the balance of study and home are juggled, and vary over the year. There have been points since October where study has dominated. I am fortunate to have a job where this is manageable and a husband who understands and supports me when free time has been given to course reading and assignment planning. However, the last fortnight has also reminded me the reward in turn, of enjoying some downtime. Giving myself a break has meant time to enjoy other interests, as well as to gear myself back up for further new CEIGHE learning yet to come.
"What is this life, if, full of care?
We have no time to stand and stare?"
About the author
Rose Leek is a paid blogger for CLL.
I relocated back near my hometown last year in Surrey, after a decade living near the sea in East Kent. I work in a University Employability & Careers Centre, assisting engineering and science students onto a placement year as part of their degree, and providing administrative support to their academic tutors.
I started the Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Education, Information and Guidance in Higher Education (CEIGHE) in October 2017 and am looking forward to developing a wider awareness of the service I work within, and increasing my confidence and understanding.
I have experienced a year with lots of change, and it is both exciting and daunting to be adding studying back into my life. I have never written a blog and my reasoning for doing so is the hope that it will help me to better reflect on, and share, my experience as a CEIGHE student. My course is mainly distance taught, with a few residential workshops per year. I wanted to also try to share the perspective of being a distance student, and how I will (hopefully!) learn to juggle the balance of study, work and home.
I look forward to the journey ahead!
And if all else fails, maybe the cat can do some of my studying for me?