In My Life – what's happening in your life currently? | Page 544 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I finished college a while ago, and have recently accepted an extremely rare opportunity to undertake a degree apprenticeship with a nearby company. 

On paper it sounds amazing. Proper salary. Working within the company for the next 5 years. Good hours.

Yet…..I don’t know. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t feel excited about it. My family keep telling me how great it is, how I can’t turn down an opportunity like this, etc. The chance to get a degree whilst working and not having to pay any uni fees at all sounds great, but I’m having second thoughts. I’d still actually have to attend uni on block release (and/or do distance learning) part time. For me it means the next 5 years being spent on assignments, exams, work, more assignments….sigh. I haven’t even started yet and the thought of it all is already stressing me out. I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it. 

That’s true…I just can’t stop having doubts though. Having the usual combination of anxiety/depression doesn’t help either.

Knowing uni has modules where presentations are specifically required for a percentage of the marks is even worse. I know it sounds stupid but I just can’t do them. They are a nightmare for me. I’m not sure how the modules work with degree apprenticeships. Maybe I’ll be lucky and it won’t require those sort of things? Somehow I doubt it. 

Do you work at a university by any chance? Do you have any insight to how things work for part-time/apprentice students?

Yes, I’m in the UK. I’ll PM you the course and uni I’ll be studying at. 

It’s not like I wouldn’t do them if I could, but I truly can’t. It’s happened so many times I’ve lost count – I’ll read out a sentence then the panic just gets to me, my throat goes all tight and I just can’t read anymore. Then I can feel everyone staring at me.. It’s held me back in a lot of ways. When I was still at college my friend convinced me to join her performing arts club and I ended up quitting after a few weeks because I couldn’t stand the thought of being in front of all those people.

I’m not sure if presentations/oral exams are actually part of the course, but as degree apprenticeships still require university study to gain the qualification I wouldn’t be surprised if they were included. They mentioned over the phone to me that there would be exams and assessments on-site. My letter also mentions e-learning and block release as methods of study. I’m really hoping these assessments don’t include presentations/oral exams.

I only found out a few days ago that I even got the apprenticeship so I don’t know all the details yet.  I agreed to start early at the company in August (seeing as I’m not doing anything at the moment), but the course itself doesn’t start until September.