Is it true that clever people go to 6th form and people who aren't go to college

It’s the idea that “clever” is about academic subjects which aside from maybe a bit of art, is what 6th forms offer.
My DS is computer obsessed. Did a BTEC ext dip because he wanted to actually do what he loved for two years. His equally obsessed friend did four A levels at 6th form. Both doing Computer Science at RG top universities. Probably both should just use their skills in the workplace though. DS final project was already beyond what his insurance Uni third years produced.

I'm not sure your typical 18 year old is lurking about on MN .......

However, I worked on the phones in my university's Clearing call centre yesterday. I spoketo to students with a range of qualifications form a range of education providers.... I'm not sure what you're still trying to prove?

I think that's a load of b0ll0x

Does it matter if you go on to study sciences or arts at 6th form?

To become a nurse you need Biology A level.

Less than a minute of research would have shown you this isn't true.

Re other people saying the number of applicants for nursing degrees didn't fall significantly with the introduction of tuition fee loans, this may be true but the profile of the applicants changed. One of the problems with nursing is that many nursing graduates either never work as nurses or else leave fairly early in their career. This is much more marked for people doing nursing degrees straight after sixth form, compared to those doing them later in life (e.g. after raising children). It was the mature applicants who were particularly deterred by having to take out loans, so the number of students was maintained but the number of years they were likely to work as nurses after graduation fell.

*how would

Why not push to people into careers and into training for these professions ?

Because it's not ethical to push people into careers they don't want to do. That's common sense surely?
How you you like it if someone pushed you into a career you had no interest in?

Rule one of good careers guidance is to be impartial.

@thistimeiknowitsforreal
To become a nurse you need Biology A level. Not everyone takes this A level or is cut out to be a nurse. We don’t need more applicants, we need more training places to accommodate the people who do want to nurse! Other jobs are available in hospitals for non A level people.

Make road haulage a more attractive job and people might want it. Driving a train pays a lot more!

There never has been a diminution of people wanting to be nurses. They really didn’t see a dip. The bigger issue is increasing training places. Nurse degree courses are over subscribed. I don’t agree that nurses, as degree holding professionals, should be exempt from the loans system. Teachers earn about the same. So do lots of other grads in shortage areas. The loans are fair for all. The bigger issue is nurses giving up and leaving. Or working for agencies and earning more but not getting the NHS pension benefit.

We absolutely cannot force young people to do anything. We need to give them info about choices. Where I live, colleges do vocational courses that don’t require A levels. Not all young people should do A levels. Some should work and do vocational qualifications or do full time vocational qualifications at the colleges., But some jobs don’t appeal to many so there are shortages. Especially care home workers.

I don't really understand the link between whether academic kids tend to go to sixth forms or colleges, and encouraging kids to become HGV drivers and nurses?

Are you suggesting that some vocations aren't promoted enough to kids? I'm trying to encourage my teenagers to get the best academic qualifications they can to keep their career options as open as possible at this stage. There's nothing wrong with being an HGV driver whatsoever but there's a lower salary ceiling than for other occupations.

We shouldn't be pushing anyone into any career!!!
We should be making sure young people have the information and support they need to make informed choices about their career plans.

That`s good.
It is but it's not that simple and probably won't fully address the problem as a previous poster rightly pointed out - the pay and conditions will always be a factor.

Also why not more HGV drivers
An educated guess ( I work in careers so this is kind of my area) I would say that the nature of the job doesn't appeal to everyone - long shifts, lots of travel etc. It's not a particularly family friendly job either.

The schools in our area didn't have 6th forms and the college I attended churned out future doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects (including me)!

The government removed free tuition fees and bursaries a few years ago for NHS courses. There was a huge drop in numbers as a result.
They reintroduced the bursary but not the fees being paid for.

Interestingly, there has been a renewed interest in health related courses since the pandemic.

I'm guessing because it's not particularly well paid plus stressful and poor working conditions (going by the nurses on MN talking about their job).

Not if you live somewhere where the education system doesn’t have school sixth forms. Which many, many places in the UK do not. There seems to be disbelief that in some areas, all pupils of all abilities go to sixth form college, because schools don’t run past age 16. It’s really bizarre that you and other posters seem unable to comprehend this.

No disbelief from me. I spoke about my area, you speak about yours.
Hands up, I haven't come across areas where's there no school sixth forms. Clearly you have.

No one is 'dissing' college kids as being unacademic. I'm sure there's some highly academic kids in colleges. But I suspect that if you look at the country as a whole, there's a higher percentage of academic kids in sixth forms. Which is what the original post asked for views on.

Where I live, generally pupils who want to study A levels stay on at school whereas pupils who want to study vocational courses go to college. It doesn't necessarily mean that one set is cleverer than the other, they just have different interests and aptitudes.

Plenty of the students who go to college to study things like agriculture or business then go on to university, so end up with the same qualifications as those who took the traditional A level route.

However despite areas like Hants, it is still true.
In Hants 50% of pupils in college are academic, 50% less so.

In a 6th form area, say 80%+ of pupils in 6th form will be academic, and 60%+ of pupils in colleges will be less academic.

So overall across England, it is still true to say that those in 6th form are more likely to be academic than those in college. But obviously not true for some specific areas such as Hants.