What was my experience in the application process?

I came into TAFE straight from high school. My experience with applying for my TAFE course is different from some peoples.

When I finally figured out what I wanted to do with my life, what I wanted my first career to be focused in, I spoke to my careers teacher in school. I had already had my mandatory Year 12 VTAC meeting, so I asked for a second one.

They helped me go over what I was required to do for my VTAC application and they directed me to points of research that I had to do on requirements for the course application. In my own research I only found two places that ran a course I was interested in.

I was slightly disappointed when I found out the only editing course I could take was combined with writing. I have never been fond of writing, I hated English in high school and I wasn’t particularly good at it either. But I was determined towards the course because while I’d have to do something I wouldn’t enjoy, it would lead me to the thing I would enjoy, editing.

So I did a bit of research on my options, with the help of my mum, and found my preferences towards my future education. I submitted the base of my application on the VTAC website, it asked for my education history, both secondary and post-secondary education, and as I was applying straight out of high school my post-secondary questions had a lot of ‘no’s. It asked me if I wanted to appoint a nominee, it asked me to set my information release permissions and ‘respond to statistical questions,’ like my parent’s education background, support inquiries and my interest in applying for a scholarship. It tells you to input your course preferences and to make doubly sure that your number one preference is up the top.

Applying through VTAC has a fee, so at the end of the process it asked me to confirm all the details I entered and gave me the fee. I had the option of paying it straight away or waiting if I needed to, but the application wouldn’t officially submit if I didn’t pay the fee. I ended up paying it in the next couple of days.

So the base of my application is in, now I needed to complete my selection tasks. The selection task included a statement outlining my interest in professional writing and editing, I had a maximum of 500 words, and a 1000-word sample of my writing. My writing sample could be anything, depending on my area of interest. As my area of interest was not writing I had a bit of a dilemma.

Before I even started my application, I went to the open day of my first preference. I was told that they only wanted some writing so they could see that they had interested candidates, they said that they didn’t want publish worthy, they wanted teachable. It eased my nerves on that end, but I still had to come up with an idea for my writing sample. I didn’t want to submit any of my English essays, as we were allowed to, because I hated them, and I didn’t want to submit something I hated. But I loved to read, always have always would. One of the teachers at the open day I went to suggested that I write a book review on my favourite book or book series. I couldn’t think of anything better, so I went with that.

I tried to look up examples of other people’s book reviews but I didn’t come up with anything acceptable, they had no structure I could follow. I eventually found an image of a good enough structure that I could follow, it gave me the basics and I wrote it with that, but then I got stuck, I used the structure to write, but I was still way under the world limit. I got some advice from one of my cousins, she is a teacher and she suggested writing more about the characters and emphasising relatability between characters and the readers, it worked and I got more words. I ended up with 1016 words.

The writing of this book review took a good couple of months, and while I had the 1000-word sample planned, I still needed a 500-word statement on my interest in writing and editing, and I was stuck again. I got some help again from another person, they asked me questions about the course, my interests and several aspects I hadn’t thought of and from that I made a plan. The plan made it easier, I had my points, I just needed to expand on them, when I ran out of words I worried a little, at the time I didn’t realise it was a maximum of 500 words, I had it in my head that it was a minimum, a quick search fixed that idea. I re-read and edited until I was completely happy with it, as I was fixed on editing, I tried to focus on the editing side of the piece. I ended up with 382 words.

It was getting pretty close to the due date for the selection task submissions when I finished writing and editing my application essays. When submitting a selection task I had to select which course I was applying for, and the first time I went to submit my selection task, there was only one course to select and it wasn’t mine. I was understandably freaking out a little, my mum and I ended up contacting the administrations for help. They told us information we already knew, they told us to do what I had already done, so I was very worried. I went to try again later, and there it was, my course. I was so relieved. I submitted it straight away. I needed to copy and paste the statement of interest into the box and the book review just needed to be submitted as a separate document. So once I was in the selection task submission area it was easy to actually submit it.

I got an email saying I successfully submitted my selection task and then 5 days later I got another email saying that I had ‘met the selection task requirements’ for the course and that I will be ‘made an offer for this course if [I] also satisfy the course’s admission requirements’ which to my knowledge I had. It wasn’t an official offer, I got that another 15 days later. I got a lot of emails in the meantime about changing my preferences but I just ignored that, I got what I wanted and I didn’t want to risk that. So when I got the official offer, I attempted to start my enrolment straight away, but that was a whole other can of worms.