DS is year 11 and has his school have just had their sixth form open evening so he is starting to think about A level options.
It is a given that he wants to do maths and physics A levels (unless things go badly wrong at GCSE). However instead of a 3rd A level, he is considering a BTEC National Extended Certificate in engineering, which his school offer as equivalent to an A level.
He isn't sure yet if he wants to aim for university or an apprenticeship after sixth form. For apprenticeship applications, the BTEC may even be more desirable than a 3rd A level. My concern is that if he decides he wants to go to university, which would probably be to do physics, how much of a problem might it be that he won't have either the standard 3 A levels or a full BTEC? Websites I have looked at this morning all seem to list grade/entry requirements for either 3 A levels or a full BTEC diploma - nor for a combination. The only place I found that mentioned the BTEC certificate said that it counts as long as it is relevant to the subject you are studying. This suggests to me that he couldn't do physics at that institution if he did the engineering BTEC, even if he also had physics and maths A levels.
I can (and probably will) ring round a few random universities to see what they say, but has anyone here got experience of DCs doing a mix of A levels and BTEC extended certificate, and how did this affect university applications? I'm hoping some of you applying right now might have this mix and can shed some light.
If it makes a difference, he is bright enough but not likely to acieve top grades. For GCSEs his targets are 7s rather than 9s, for instance. I just wouldn't want him to choose a route that will really limit his university options, should he choose to go down that route.
Thank you
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Secondary education
Sixth Form Choices - mix of A levels and BTEC?
7 replies
Trillis · 17/10/2019 11:10
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