What You Should Look out for in a Short Course
Many working adults turn to short courses to learn a new skill or pursue their interests in their own time. The benefits to short courses are manifold – allowing you to explore subjects that interest you amongst like-minded people, giving you a leg up in the working world, and being useful as a stepping stone to higher qualification.
However, there are things that you’ll need to take into consideration before registering for a course. Below are some factors that you may want to take note of.
Time Commitment
Even though it’s supposedly “just a short course”, make sure that you’re not biting off more than you chew. The most basic thing you have to consider is of course the time you’ll have to spend on the course each week.
Beyond that though, you should also take note of things such as course duration and location. If the travel time is significant or if the course lasts too long, then you might want to consider other options. Also note that some courses have e-learning as an option, which will allow you to save time by clocking in hours online at home.
Accreditation
If you’re pursuing a course just for interest’s sake, then this shouldn’t matter much. If you intend to use your course as a stepping stone to something bigger though (such as higher education or better job opportunities), you’ll have to make sure that your intended course is credible and well-recognised.
Skill Level
A lot of courses are for beginners, but you shouldn’t just assume that it’s the case for every single course. Some courses actually expect you to have prior experience or knowledge. Make sure that you don’t register for a course of the wrong level – it’ll be embarrassing if you enter a classroom for advanced Japanese when you only have a cursory understanding of the language after all.
Refund Policies
We all go in with the best of intentions when we try to do something new, but sometimes we just can’t follow through till the end. You might have other commitments that come out, or you might just find out that you just aren’t interested in the course. Whatever the case is, it’s best to find out what the refund policies are just so that you know what to do when you need to end the course prematurely.
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