Memorandum 7
Submission from Helen Lintell, Student
Services Manager, Open University in the South West
The proposed ELQ regulation would have a significant
and detrimental impact on my son's career plans.
He is 25 years old and took a degree in Media
Production. He found the precarious employment associated with
the film industry unsatisfactory and became interested in secondary
school teaching, offering Media and English. He has been advised
by the HEI under which he will take his PGCE or GTP that he needs
to include more English courses as part of his undergraduate profile.
Accordingly he is currently taking a second level English Literature
course with the Open University, approved by his teacher training
HEI.
Meanwhile my son is working as a Teaching Assistant
as part of his preparation for teaching and thus his income is
modest. Any large increase in the cost of such courses for people
like my son would make it very difficult for them to make this
kind of career change. Any consideration of this his intentions
would see them as having social utility and any measures which
thwarted them can only been seen as disadvantageous both to him
and society generally.
My son would certainly be a victim of the ELQ
proposals and I invite anyone to judge what would be the value
of doing so.
I write both as a parent and also a staff member
of the Open University where I encounter a number of people in
analogous positions as my son. Overwhelmingly they are likewise
going into teaching having taken degrees in non curriculum subject
area. Do we really want to deter such people?
January 2008
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