Fast-track degree for Japan working visa

[Paul_Zed]

Hey there!

I have worked as an administrative officer with the UK Civil Service for 10 years but am ready for a fresh challenge (I have recently turned 40).

I am a UK resident, and am keen to move to Japan to teach English, however, to obtain a work visa in Japan one must be the recipient of an accredited Baccalaureate. To obtain this through distance learning with the UK's Open University would require at least 3 years.

Researching the subject online, I came across an article whereby someone had gotten their Japanese work visa via achieving their accredited degree online through TESU in 10 months.

To say that I was encouraged would be an understatement! I contacted the website's creator and he was generous in his advice; he pointed me in the direction of this forum, for which I am very grateful.

I believe that with enough study and hard work that I could obtain a valid degree in a year through TESU. I am specifically interested in obtaining a degree through the flexible approach afforded by the BA course in Liberal Arts, with a view to transferring an acceptable amount of credit through "testing out" TESU-recognized alternative course equivalency credits.

I now have folders of links marked "EQUIVALENCIES", "Degree plans" "Electives" "CLEP" etc etc ad nauseum. I've found myself bookmarking pages and finding I have them already bookmarked so I might need to calm down a little. The vagaries and open-endedness can be disconcerting for someone new to navigating this hitherto unbeknownst pathway towards a degree.

I understand that the Liberal Arts capstone is a non-negotiable part of the puzzle, from the little I heave gleaned here; also it seems that if i enrol before Friday (!) that I may or may not be able to avoid the new cornerstone pre-requisite, but that either way, it would be a good idea to enrol now to "lock in" the current course catalogue.

I am leaning towards applying sooner rather than later as I want to get this degree done in as less than a year anyway - it would give me a concrete deadline to work towards, and having the guidance of a TESU advisor could be invaluable in deciding which courses are worth taking as equivalencies.

I have passed the first year of a BSc in Psychology at Queen's University Belfast, although as this was in 1995, I am unsure if this would be within an appropriate timescale to use as some small amount of credit transfer; I know that this form of evaluation is undertaken by a third party, so there is no guarantee. I also hold a Network+ qualification and an MCP in Microsoft Windows 2000, these were obtained in 2003. I may try my hand at turning them in for credit.

Since I discovered this fast-track option a whole week ago, my brain has been basically melting out of my ears in trying to find the optimum route forward; it's true that with my meagre salary I could fly from the north of Ireland to London and back maybe twice a month maximum, and that's with booking flights pretty far in advance; all the same, with the advantage of hard study and instant cert flashcards I could see myself perhaps being able to undertake 2 or 3 CLEP tests per visit (this from a man who's never taken a CLEP exam in his life and in fact only heard about them last week).

I intend to start off by taking a few ALEKS courses for credits; the Saylor and Straighterline courses seem a potential godsend as well, considering my distance from the nearest CLEP testing centre.

Once I get the degree part sorted out (by next summer I hope!) I plan on doing a month-long intensive CELTA TEFL course, which they actually run regularly a few streets from here.

I should be extremely grateful for any guidance that you can offer me, you seem like a friendly and helpful bunch.

I will keep you all informed about how i get on!

Thanks to anyone who had the patience to read through this spiel



Paul