Hi Everyone,
I've just joined this forum and thought I might be courteous to introduce myself before posting with discussion topics relevant to my study. I've recently enrolled in a TAFE Digital Cert IV course, a decision I made owing to the potential that on-campus study might be suspended. My thought is that I may as well get started. I'm based in Sydney, NSW.
For the record, I'm not actually doing a childcare-specific study, rather Cert IV in Community Services. That said, there is a large component of child-related course content, perhaps as much as 1/3rd of the assessments I'm working on presently. We can probably assume that there is a lot of crossover with the same legislations, ethics. policy directives etc, which is what compelled me to visit this forum as part of my learning. For example, 'Mandatory Reporting' is the third question in the first module, and there is a detailed assessment task in the second module using the MRG decision tree (note that I have no questions about this aspect, it's pretty straightforward)
As a mature-age student who hasn't studied formally for 30 years, it's an exciting but sometimes daunting prospect to have 18 months of study ahead of me, but I'm committed to giving it my best shot, with the view to start a new career.
Something that I am finding already, with remote learning, is that the study content seems a little 'cobbled together', consisting of random links to many other organisations' statements, rather than any course-specific generated content for students. To the best of my knowledge, TAFE Digital have only very recently launched the course for off-campus.
And it feels like I'm working in my own little bubble. No teacher/student interaction as would happen in a class environment. No student colleagues to discuss and explore topics with. I'm trying to figure out ways to find other students and professionals in the same/similar fields in order to engage with, but haven't had much luck.
So I hope I will be welcomed here into this community, and have an opportunity to have some discussions. In my forthcoming posts, I will try and make it clear that I'm not simply looking for the easy route, but instead, have a genuine desire to understand and comprehend the legal & ethical requirements. There's a couple of child-related case studies that I'm a bit lost on, so for now I'm making notes for myself on a lot of 'maybes' that I'll spend time researching. I'm putting in a lot more hours per week that the prescribed amount, and consider that this will be part of the process of re-engaging with the whole mindset of formal study, as I'm learning not only the content but the concept of study !
Thanks for having me here, and I hope to chat with some of you in the future.
Jay
