I completed my VCE back in 2016 and went straight out to work instead of studying at uni. However, I have decided that I should finally settle down and stabilise myself. Due to that, I would just like some tips on universities, scholarships and application procedures. I plan to study education (considering only primary) and languages. A friend of mine advised me to look into the universities that are more practical and offer regular, good placement programs. That being said, the top universities do not necessarily offer those, which is why I would like some insight into some lesser known universities that I might be overlooking. I appreciate any advice!
Welcome back to the academic life; it seems like you’ve had quite the life journey!
Just some questions for you:
1. Are you after an undergraduate (Bachelor of Education, Diploma, etc.) or postgraduate (Masters of Teaching) primary teaching course? The postgraduate route typically is longer as they usually require you to have done an undergraduate course already, but it is a good route for those who want to discover other areas first or not quite sure of their career paths yet (such as languages in your case).
2, Did you want to study languages, teaching or both as your main area(s) e.g. a major/ minor in a Bachelor degree? Or would you like languages to be taught separately to primary education e.g. Bachelor + Diploma of Languages? Or are you hoping to do both e.g. become a primary LOTE teacher?
3. What languages are you interested in? Some unis and tertiary institutes get a bit limited sometimes on the languages, so some places may or may not teach the language you’re after.
4. When would you ideally like to start studying?
5. Are you hoping to study in Victoria? Some people like going interstate for their tertiary education.
If you’re hoping to study in Victoria, I’d probably recommend that you search up the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC for short), which does admissions to a lot of Victorian tertiary institutes already (you can also apply direct to your eventual uni of choice, but that would mean an individual application per uni you’re trying to get into), including big ones like Melbourne University to lesser known institutes like Victoria Uni. You’d be making an account (it costs a bit of money depending on when you apply) and applying as a non-Year 12 (non-Y12)/ non-school leaver applicant. I’d also recommend having a look at
VTAC Course Search, which lists some degrees (not all, but a good number to begin with). This might give you an idea to start off with before getting into finer details. It might be best to get an idea of what sort of course you think is best for yourself and then we can get into which placement is better for you soon.
Deakin, Swinburne, La Trobe and Victoria Uni all have primary teaching courses that are pretty sweet and all four of those are “smaller, lesser known” unis, so those might be a starting point too.
Really up to what suits you best and what you want to do.