Worried about GCSEs

Hi, he did A level maths, physics and computer science as well as BTech engineering. Got average marks but across the 4 enough points for what was required by the Uni to access the course. The apprenticeship was advertised on the government apprenticeship site. He loves it! Day release at Uni, money in his pocket as well as learning on the job. He had no interest in going to Uni full time as wasn't bothered on the Uni lifestyle. Probably more chance of job at the end as well as the company is training him up to what they want/need.
A lot of the non-degree apprenticeships potentially turn into degree ones as well if the workplace see potential in someone as it keeps their funding from the government.

Leave her alone at the moment. If she's failed, then she'll have to decide whether to resit or not. Let her see her peers move away into universities. She may decide she'd like to go to uni after all. If that's the case,and if she has the ability, she'll make sure she passes.
If she really doesn't want to go, then you can't and shouldn't make her just to satisfy your ambitions for her. This is her life, let her get on with it.
As many have said, a degree is not a guarantee of a good and secure future.

Most people don't pay for university up front though and it would take quite a long time to save for a flat deposit if you just saved the equivalent of student loan payments each year.

And I'm assuming the children from families that can afford to pay up front are probably already getting a deposit too.

I agree that apprenticeships are the way to go, but there aren't enough currently.

My husband works in IT with AI and says that in 10 years many jobs will be gone. He is also of opinion that apprenticeships will be the way to go and all of our family members are educated to a degree level.
It's a huge waste of money to study anything these days just to end up with lots of debt. Better save this money for a flat deposit.

How was DD doing academically prior to mocks? Has she always been a high achiever, but just had a bad day, or has she always just managed to keep up with the workload?

In the gentlest way, if it's the latter, then she is incredibly unlikely to have the capacity to become a doctor or lawyer, just because you think that's the right path for her. Engineering can be achieved via the BTEC and apprenticeship route, but she will need to pass maths and have the drive to do it; it's very competitive and the good apprenticeships are very over-subscribed.

Does DD even want to consider any of your preferred professions? What is it that you excel at, after attending university? Do you really want to steer DD in to something which she isn't particularly committed to for herself, and can you afford to push her without her having to go in to debt for your needs (ie, can you fully-fund her course)?

I was sad when DS dropped out of university (engineering course) during Covid, but he has continued in that career path with on the job training and now several years of experience, and he and DGF are looking to buy their first house - both are early/mid twenties (but we are not in SE).

Please, please, don't push DD in to something she really doesn't want to do and may be miserable with, just because you think it's the right thing.

So you went o uni... and what amazing job are you doing today for yourself?? Let's hear it. Some kids are not cut out for uni. If she wants to be an amazing hairdresser let her. In age of AI I know kids with first clas law degrees not getting work. Get a grip. You sound delightful as a human being... and if she doesn't make a lot of money surely your whole family that went to uni with your amazing high flying jobs can fund and look after her. Can you bloody believe the ignorance... poor kid

This sounds fab! May i ask what a levels or brecs he did and how he got into the apprenticeship? This is what I would like to encourage mine to do ...well done !

It you seriously thought your daughter was going to be a lawyer / Dr etc I think you'd be more on it than to discover she'd failed all but one mocks and not really know why.. you'd have known it was coming and provide some support at home or with tutors etc..

For all your banging on about education, you’re remarkably uneducated to the fact that everyone is different. For some children with SEN, getting one GCSE is an incredible feat.

I totally agree. And this is the whole thrust of this thread. It sounds like OP's DD is trying hard, revising and working to the best of her ability. But her mother will consider her a "failure" if she doesn't get good enough grades, and go on to A Levels and university.

Be proud of the child you have, not the child you wish you had.

If a child works their socks off and struggles then yes absolutely. You love and cherish your children for what they are not their exam results. As long as mine do their best then that is something to be proud of. As earlier poster wrote about a young person who won’t be collecting her exam results as she passed from a brain tumour, her mum and dad would give anything for her just to be here collecting her results and wouldn’t care what they were. Get a grip FFS, I feel sorry for your kids and thank god they are so successful as they will probably need the money for therapy.

Rare?

WTF are you going on about? How on earth is owning a salon rare? There are hundreds of thousands of salons across the country.

You sound awful. I’m sorry to say.

I’m going to bite. Proud of her as a whole person with many different attributes. A person is more than a bunch of numbers written on a piece of paper.

And yes, if that 1 GCSE was hard won, then be proud of that that GCSE.

The big aggregates companies I work with all have apprenticeship schemes - Tarmac, Cemex, etc. We had a 20 year old guy learning the ropes and he'd already been told he'd have his own plant to run if he stuck with it - which I believe as many of the plant managers are in their early 20s.

The production manager was telling me that they're often a bit shaky at the start but after a few years are bang on. There's a lot of older guys in this industry and they're generally less interested in doing long hours for the money when it gets busy. The young guys will happily work a night pour for £450.

My 20 year old son is in the 2nd year of a 3 year level 6 apprenticeship after completing A levels. He's earning (very) good money as well as having his BEng degree paid for. He works for a large company and is therefore pretty much guaranteed a job at the end of it. Apprenticeships have moved on a lot from the YTS days. When he was looking I was amazed at the variety, money and opportunities on offer.

Why the pressure to go to uni, because the rest of the family did? My daughter spent 3 months at uni, hated it. She left and found a apprenticeship. She was successful and is now with a law firm, training to be a solicitor and all her degree is being paid for by her employers. She left uni at xmas and began the apprenticeship 6 wks later. Not everyone is academic, but everyone has the right to be happy , in a job they enjoy. I hope she does pass her gcse's but if not, all is not lost. She can go to college and resit them. Trust me, she won't be the only one worried for a wk on Thursday. Hope all goes well

That's the piling rig from my last job. I really love heavy plant. Has an almost steampunk aesthetic at times. My graduate job involved writing bids for shopping centre cleaning/TFM contracts.

I remember having to write an enthusiastic piece about a wondrous new innovation that was essentially a traffic cone with a hoover and mop inside it to clean up spills and 'mitigate the risk of slips, trips, and falls'. It was like pulling teeth.

But why do people so often default to discussing low paid jobs if uni isn't an option?

I agree they need done in the same way low paying jobs in academia and research need done, but all else being equal you'd be better off picking a job with a decent salary.

I hated my graduate job and I'm not overly money focused. Most of my hobbies are pretty cheap. However, I wouldn't have been very interested in a job with shit pay. I got my truck license for £2k (and also a few heavy plant tickets now) and my last contract on HS2 was paying £360 a day Mon-Thur for working mostly 16:00-19:45
and £200 for sitting at home on Friday on stand down. I'm only 30ish so I think that's a decent wedge, especially considering I have zero stress aside from when I occasionally prang a concrete block or something.

It was so easy if you could drive half decently. There was a batching plant onsite so I didnt even drive on the public roads except to get there. I just did two loads most days, which involved backing under the plant to load with concrete and then driving five mins down the haul road and pouring it into the foundations.

Even in my less than four hour shift I'd be sat around on my phone half the time as the piling rigs had to drill the holes first and they often imploded. I got paid £700 a day for working Sat/Sun on bank holiday. First day I spent ten hours napping in the truck/watching films as they couldn't get the admixtures right. Second day I did about an hour's work.

They didn't care about paying us to be on standby as they needed the foundations poured as soon as they managed to drill them as they'd cave in otherwise - I'm assuming that all the drilling teams were a bigger expense so they needed them not to be repeating the process multiple times.

This is sound advice. Hopefully, she will pass her GCSEs but Maths and English are the essentials, then as above, she can enrol at a good further education college on a course that suits her ability and interests.

Yes - this is what struck me too. The OP seems to have very little knowledge of how her daughter is doing or why - beyond the poor mock exam performance. If you seriously want your child to be a Doctor / Lawyer etc, then you have surely been really engaged with their schoolwork, reports etc over the years? And if she has been consistently struggling, you'd know? Just seems really odd that OP is taken by surprise and only has her daughter's word for it that she revised. If you have these aspirations for your child, aren't you at least engaging with how much revision they're doing?? Odd.

Why? Just to get herself into debt and fail more exams?
This world needs supermarket workers, cleaners, manual workers etc and none of those require a degree.

Yanbu it’s just something you need to get through

And tbh for a lot of middle class women quality of life is more dictated by their husband's salary than their own, even if it's a bit of a taboo statement. Many don't keep pushing the career with the same intensity into their 40s which is the decade men reach peak earning potential.

My son started an engineering apprenticeship after A levels. He did not want to go to uni but wanted to be a train driver. He was too young to apply so worked hard at his apprenticeship and passed but as soon as he was old enough, applied to be a driver.
He's now a driver manager on roughly £90k.
Also, have you ever met a poor plumber or heating engineer?
The NHS has lots of apprenticeships too.
You need to stop being so snobby and open your eyes to a world of possibilities for your daughter.

That doesn't make sense. I've met loads of people on engineering apprenticeships. They spend a significant amount of time actually working on the job in addition to learning so they're not entering the job market completely green like many graduates.

And plumbers etc can make six figure salaries if ambitious. Some people don't want to work in an office talking about blue sky thinking etc. Some people are happier being their own boss, doing a hands on job, and still being a high earner.