Retraining as a young adult after attempting a career in the performing arts

[Lavve]

DD (year 10) wants to go to a performing arts college for sixth form. She is strong academically and is likely to do well in her GCSEs. If she goes down this path but then at, say, 23 she decides it’s not for her for whatever reason, what are her options for picking up where she left off? Obviously she can’t go back to school and do A levels, but would the same courses at the same universities be available to her with foundation courses/access courses, or A levels at some adult education centre?

I’m aware she’s very unlikely want to do this, but I’m after some reassurance that making this decision at 16 isn’t going to be something she regrets later on. She is currently injured and it’s making me even more nervous about the precariousness of the whole thing.

I'm not in the UK but my child took this route. Didn't have any school qualifications at all, as was full time training from early teens. After having to change paths when forced out for medical reasons, they just went straight to university.

That’s reassuring @pastaish. Must have been tough on your dc though, after all that training?

Any chance you can bribe her to do A levels and then go the performing arts route after sixth form? The percentage of people who actually make a good living from performing arts is very small,

It wasn't, because the medical issues left them so exhausted, they were ready to be done with it at the time they stopped. They were in dance.

As PP have said she will be able to pick up Uni as a mature student without the A levels. Might have to do a foundation course.
There are many other interesting jobs in performing arts other than acting. Show callers, production managers, sound and lighting etc. They pay well and good crew are in demand .

This is why I think she’s unlikely to want to pick up again with the more standard route. She’ll prob want to stay in the same area even if not performing herself. We recently agreed she had too much on to perform in the school show and she has ended up choreographing in instead 🙄🙄

I’m glad they have found their way after what sounds like a very difficult time

It was a difficult few years but they are thriving in a field they love now. There is life after performing arts, so I wouldn't worry about that. :-)

I retrained in my 30s in a professional career which required a degree. You just do an access course first.

Encourage her to go for it. Why wasn’t she allowed to perform in the school show though if this is what she wants to do?

ETA I am so glad I didn’t waste time on a levels. They were pointless for the vocational career I had until my 30s, and wouldn’t have helped me get into uni then as over 5 years had passed.

I'd be encouraging her to do A levels and keep PA as a hobby.

Also I do think the way you’re framing this is very negative. From the thread title I thought it was a career which had already failed.

Many tens of thousands of people make a good living in the PA and have happy, fulfilling lives. No reason why your daughter shouldn’t be one of them.

I gave it that title because I wanted to hear about people who had gone through it, like pastaish’s dc. It’s actually part of convincing myself that it’s ok to encourage her to pursue it, if there are other options available in the future.

She isn’t performing in this school show because she already performed in one before Christmas, and by the Christmas holidays she was completely burnt out. She would have rehearsals at school, come home, eat, and go straight to dance training. It was too much.

I didn’t go to a performing arts college but I did go to drama school. No one looks at your A levels once you get a degree. So once she’s done college she will want to go to drama school and get her degree. And she will love it and maybe she will work in the industry a few years. Maybe she’ll get a break. I worked in the sector for about 5 years after graduation then I changed career. I still know a fair few people in the industry making a living and I graduated 15 years ago. DC goes to school with someone whose parents are both in the industry. One parent is a working actor the other does the odd bit of performing work alongside an ordinary admin job. It’s a tough life, hours and work are irregular, hours can be long too. But nothing is forever, she can change her mind and her A levels won’t matter.

Slightly different but my nephew did not do well at school and drifted for a couple of years. He then did a one year foundation course and is now completing a physiotherapy degree, with a bursary. My DD's boyfriend dropped out of University, did a year at College and restarted Uni on a different course.

My DH is a College lecturer - he teaches people of all ages who didn't get their qualifications at school for a vast range of reasons. There is always a second chance for people who want it and are prepared to study. It is easier to get the qualifications at school, of course, but far from the only way. Not everyone takes a straightforward linear path.

What area of performing arts?

My son is an actor, he has an Acting degree, is permanently in work (mix of acting and other types of work). He could easily do a masters or something if he wanted to retrain (unlikely I think, although he could step sideways into something related at some stage I guess).

If the performing arts 16+ is an extended diploma BTEC it’s the equivalent in UCAS points of 3 A levels. A different son has an extended BTEC (in something other than performing arts) and has been accepted to uni after a few years out doing minimum wage jobs. No access course required. Of course it won’t get you to Oxbridge but there are other routes to high tariff universities if that is something she decided she wanted in the future.

My eldest son went at 16, successfully launched a career and then received a medical diagnosis which meant he couldn’t dance anymore. He went back to university and studied music and arts management and has a very successful career.

This is a super helpful post - my daughter is a bit younger (13) but aiming for dance college. She also loves the academic side so my vague understanding was that she could do dance college (and maybe a couple years dancing if she is good enough) and then go to Uni later on as she’ll have her highers from high school (we are in Scotland).

OP not at all related to the Performing arts but a relative left school without any ambition and was years working in warehouse type roles and retrained in their early 30s and has a very successful professional career now

@Lavve if they can't follow their dream at 16, when can they? DD wanted to be an actress, she did drama A'Level, we said we'd support through drama school providing she got something like teaching or nursing under her belt so she could always get work. She also continued her voice training.

She went to uni, qualifed as an English teacher, did a part-time course at Mount View. Teaches secondary English and Drama, acts in her spare time and earns significant pin money singing at weddings. Probably likely to switch to speech and language therapy.

My mother was a professional dancer, trained as a ballerina, then did chorus work, on stage and with the BBC. In her late 30s/40s had a dance school teaching tap and ballet then as steps business grew, did his office work, payroll, etc.

The performing arts college mine would go to at 16 also has a gap year course so i planted the seed from early she should do her A Levels first then could do the gap year. If they’re academic too I’d definitely not encourage them to go to performing arts college so young.

Why not? Just curious. For dance you need to do it young or not at all really.

@PurpleThistle7I guess because it’s so unlikely to become a successful, fulfilling career for the vast majority - so I’d like her to get the fundamentals of her education (GCSEs and A levels) first to give more options. She’s 15 now and can carry on training in dance and musical theatre alongside her academic education as she is now. The college has a Saturday school too and their shows are just as good, they are just the ones who chose not to do it full time at 16, not the less talented.

I do love watching the college students perform too, and see it’s another valuable route, but not one I’d encourage for my daughter at this age.

What's a show caller? I worked in the theatre for years and have never heard of it?

My daughter will do her highers first so she has plenty of options but I guess I see a couple years from 17-20 or so trying to do something she loves as being her only chance to do it (like the Olympians we are watching now!) and then the hard work will serve her well in whatever she does next - uni or an apprenticeship or whatever.

I think foundation courses are only free for the year after 6th form, so under 19s.