BTECs at college - Support thread 2

Wilf BTEC is classed as a full-time course even when they are only there for 3 days. I don't doubt that the tutor has said about getting a job. My DS was offered a place at a very well thought of college (hasten to add that we ended up with plan b) and even they said that they accepted that in this day and age students had to work.

Won't hurt especially if it is sport related. My DS is a football ref and thankfully (not long before applying for uni so it looked better on the personal statement) also got a job in a sports centre. He is on a zero hour contract so was able to say no to too many hours when he had assignments due and work more inbetween or during holidays.

My DS went straight from GCSEs to BTEC. At school his attitude was appalling and I was surprised he passed anything (did fail english). What a change once at college. All subjects revolve around sport and he found it much more interesting than studying religious studies. You will probably find your DS will feel the same - he's sounds very sports orientated.

My DS's final grades based on his GCSEs were no more than MMM and he has come out with DDD so it can be done. In fact it should have been D D D but we had a huge wobble the last few weeks.

I know it is easier said than done but try and be a bit laid back until he starts. Give him a chance to proof himself. Will he be ok with you asking question? It is different to A levels so maybe you can try and keep up with how he is doing by asking how the criteria works. Also remember not all assignments will be able to attract a distinction grade so no point going mad when he can;t get any better than a merit.

Hopefully the thought of Loughborough will be a motivation. By the way he thought of anywhere else. Some places offer coaching degrees. He may change his mind as the course progresses. My DS was going down that route, then went with his fellow students to a nearby uni for a visit and found the sport and exercise science so fascinating that he has gone for that instead/

Sorry this is a bit of a essay bit I hope it has given you (and others) some hope. Feel like I am bragging a bit but have say it all to show it can work out

Just to add, if on the new courses and your son / daughter is doing the work experience option, there is a great booklet produced by Pearson to support both the centre and the student. A huge improvement on what did exist for this unit as there is space for targets, diary logs, reports etc.

I teach Btec courses at level 3 so maybe I can answer a couple of questions. If your son/daughter is is now going into year 13 they will be on the old course ie all coursework. If they are going into year 12 from September they may be on the new or old course depending on where they are studying.

If they are at a school sixth form they will be studying the new courses ie with exams and controlled assessment because this course counts on the league tables, but still counts for UCAS points. If they are at a sixth form college, they may still be studying the old course as league tables don't apply and UCAS points still count.

It is complicated but it is really important to check what course they ar studying, especially as the names of the courses - certificate, diploma etc have also changed from one course to another.

DS1 had one day off a week and a late start another day. But then in the second year a group of them did a major project with a high-profile corporate, which looked good on his personal statement. In fact, all the BTEC students who thought about their time from the personal statement angle have ended up with really good offers. A relevant part-time job where he could clearly show achievements and new skills could be useful.

Thanks all: appreciate the advice about Sport/Loughborough. I think DS wants to do some kind of coaching/development anyhow, so maybe the Psych route will suit him.

Main issue is he is going to have to get his fingers out of his ears, stop going LALALALALALANOTLISTENING and start meeting deadlines, right?

He has also been told by the tutor allegedly that he will 'have two days off per week'. I went and said 'You mean 2 days STUDY time, right?' and he said nope, the tutor advised them to get a part-time job. Now I couldn't possibly think of my son as lying . Is he right? Isn't it a full time course?!

True.

Loughborough will accept the BTEC extended diploma on its own for Sport Psychology but not Sport and Exercise Science. I think Bath may be similar.

Ellen My DS is off to Cardiff Met for Sport and Exercise Science. Well done to your DS.

MirabelleTree GnomeDePlume and oenophilia Well done to your DC and I am sorry about the GCSE. My DS has refused to go into get his English result and wouldn't give me permission to go. We will have to wait for it to be posted.

TheSecond and Just5mins There is only so much you can do. Just remember if they change their mind there is the chance to start again on another course. Funding is for three years post GCSEs

oenophilia thank you, that gives me confidence. DS has just completed his Engineering level 2 at double merit. Unfortunately his GCSE English resit returned another D but the college are being great. Officially he is going onto the Engineering Level 3 certificate and resitting his English in November. However they have said that he will be able to move onto the Engineering Level 3 Diploma if he can pass his English resit.

Well, DS2 got what he needed to get on to his level 3 course! Really happy, here. Will be on this thread often, I'm sure.

There's a bit of that going on here TheSecond. We keep coming back to a 2 A-level/ BTEC combo (almost as a compromise, it seems) that I find more worrying than any of the other options, frankly.

Having convinced me that the Level 3 Diploma was the best option for him, DS has (this morning) decided to go back to his original plan of A-levels.

DS1 has just finished a Level 3 BTEC in Engineering. We had to have a major crisis rethink this time 2 years ago when his GCSE's came back just miles off where they should have been (Aspergers - so could have gone either way). He didn't get into the school 6th Form and there was no help or advice on what to do next. I found a couple of colleges doing BTEC and we looked at IT, Business and Engineering - and it was Engineering that caught his enthusiasm. He thrived in a 6th form college rather than a school environment and really stepped up to the plate on having constant deadlines to meet, and also liked being taught by people who done real engineering jobs rather than simply knowing how to teach. He had to resit his English GCSE but did it at Easter in the first year and went up from a low D to a mid-B - bit of extra maturity helped but also different style of teaching. He got his results last week the same day as the A levels came out and got DDD, which is 400 UCAS tariff points (the same as AAA at A level). So next month we're waving him goodbye to a RG uni to read Civil Engineering. Crap GCSEs were the best thing that could have happened for him, although at the time it felt like the end of the world.

A huge well to Fozzie's DD. Re Loughborough a friend's DS was offered a place, he was doing a double BTEC plus an A level. They offered Double distinction plus B in his A level. He turned it down in favour of an unconditional offer from somewhere else.

DD has dyspraxia and survived year 1 of a BTEC. It was a rocky start with her first project coming back with the comments of her having just scraped a pass. In her college they did 11 units so they didn't need to count 2 of them. Her first 4 units were passes then she got to grips with what was required of her and got 4 distinctions plus 2 merits giving her the 90 credit diploma at Distinction Merit which I am really pleased about.

It was undoubtedly a steep learning curve. They had 3 projects on the go, one with each lecturer. They were either 1 or 2 units each . 2 of the lecturers set weekly assignments, the other just gave the project overall so she had to be organised and there was a lot of stress at the end when it was due in. She's finished with the BTEC now sync donut an A level next year. I'm hoping the BTEC has given her some organisational skills.

Friend's DS has a place in Sports Science at Cardiff Met, I thought it was University of South Wales but was mistaken.

Yeah I read that they wanted an A level on top. Zero chance of persuading DS to think about that right now...

ds considered Loughborough for sports but not for long - whilst they do accept the btec, the entry requirements for the sports course he looked at said he needed an extra A level (grade A) on top of the extended diploma

Thanks all. Waves at Draylon.

Interesting. It also looks like my DS will be doing Sports BTEC and hopes to do well enough to get into university to do something sporty.

To be honest sport is ALL he has been motivated to do for thw last few years (he's a decent regional level volleyball player and has his first coaching badge) so it is probably a good fit. But he had hoped to go to Loughborough at one point and I don't know if they will accept a BTEC.

We'll see. With the attitude he is giving me at the moment, he might not live to consider university

Thank you GasLight and Just5. My DD struggled with GCSE's getting mostly C's and D's. In fact her headmistress told us that she would 'never set the world alight'. We are astounded that she has done so well in her BTEC, she has social anxiety issues so I can only think that the 'adult' environment of a college and the study of one subject (apart from a maths GCSE retake) has suited her. I also think the independent nature of the Computing assignment work and the longer submission time compared with school along with the hands-off approach of the tutors has suited her much more. The only downside we are finding is that the classes at college and uni are mainly comprised of boys and she desperately needs a female friend!

But for exams she got 25% extra time. She still needs extra time for her BTEC work really, but that just means more hours out of lessons as each assignment takes longer for her (processing issues, but also distractibility/concentration).

So on balance yes more dyspraxia friendly I think, but not a walk in the park by any means!

So like bite sized pieces but coming along constantly on a fairly rapid conveyer belt, then?

The processing speed issue is a double edged sword, isn't it?

It depends how good your DC is at revision, really. My DS with ASD is rubbish at organising himself to do revision, so assignments that come along regularly throughout the course will work better for him. I'm hoping college will help him a bit with organising himself as he goes along. I think it'll be easier to spot if he's struggling earlier as well.