CASE STUDY: Vicky Donnelly

Today, Vicky is the Manager of a Playcentre and a part-time teaching practitioner at Abingdon & Witney College for a pre-16 level 1 tutor group.

 

Seven years after completing her GCSEs, Vicky remembers going to the local JobCentre and asking them for ideas of what she could do. At the time she had two young children. The JobCentre suggested entering the childcare sector. Vicky decided to take up this advice and volunteered as a Play Assistant at a Day Nursery.

Vicky enjoyed this experience so much that she decided to undertake the Diploma in Pre-school Practice taught at Abingdon & Witney College. At this time the government was bringing in regulations requiring Early Years practitioners to have Early Years Professional Status (EYPS). An inspirational tutor from the college suggested that she should consider doing a Foundation degree as the first step towards EYPS. Vicky decided to enrol on a full-time Foundation degree in Early Years, quality assured by Oxford Brookes University and taught at Abingdon & Witney College. Vicky describes the three months in between finishing the Diploma and starting the Foundation degree as being frustrating, as she had caught the "learning bug" and wanted to carry on straight away.

"I thoroughly enjoyed the Foundation degree and the lecture times helped me fit in family and work commitments". Vicky said it also helped that her workplace was supportive and she was given a day release a week for paperwork. Classes were held every Wednesday for four hours in the evening. One of the best parts about the course was meeting new people who were also working in the sector. "The Foundation degree provided me with the underpinning knowledge to understand what makes young people tick".

After the Foundation degree Vicky went on to do the final year of an undergraduate degree at Brookes, the BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies. Vicky explained that going on to Brookes to do the final year was a bit of a culture change because of the different sizes of the institutions, but she still enjoyed it and was successful.

Vicky's advice for anyone starting a Foundation degree or progressing further with education is to leave a day a week study free for family time or personal time. Despite Vicky's busy schedule she usually left Sunday as a free day, which was an important break.

Vicky is just about to finish her Early Year Practitioner Status course at Oxford Brookes. She hopes to go on to further learning in the future, perhaps by undertaking a PTTLS or DTLLS course (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector and Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector).

"Undertaking the Foundation degree has meant I now feel ready to teach, whereas before I did not feel I had the confidence". Vicky would recommend the Foundation degree to anyone considering entering higher education.

We spoke to Vicky in November 2010