lot of people on this thread accusing the OP of being 'entitled' to wanting to study the equivelent of A levels because she needs some help.
To be honest it does sound odd to my ears, the expectation of gov assistance to smooth over the roadblocks of returning to education as an adult (ie childcare) .
I think that's perhaps becuase I left the UK so young (21) and places like Thailand and Italy don't have a comparable welfare state let alone additional assistance for returning to education. Perhaps the mindset of expectation of assistance for a later bite of the cherry is why I didn't gird my loins at 16 when I ploughed my O levels and go for resits instead of merrily wandering along thinking "I'll do it later".
I fucked up. It wasn't entirely my fault, my father walked out on the 2nd day of my O levels. But it was entirely my descision to devalue the opportunity (on a plate) to continue with my education.
I have taught so many young students facing similar or worse challenges here and they don't have the same off hand attitude towards their education that I did. I wouldn't say they percive it as a priviledge as such. But it is so much clearer to them that it is now or probably never than it was for me. And as it turned out, becuase I "got on my plane bike" as instructed, it turned out to be never becuase I put myself out of the game via the economic realities of not being in the UK student fee bracket.
There does seem to be a pervasive belief in the UK that higher education can and will be available despite the greater challenges that being an adult with varied responsibilities and ties brings. 16-18 year olds tend to be footloose and fancey free and enjoying a period where generally they can dedicate themselves solely to their educatiom. It isn't always like that once you have gone on to live as an adult and gained responsibilities and restrictions thanks to a variety of roles you have to play to others.
I was a home educator and was a bit taken aback with how lightly some parents seemed to regard time sensitive access to further or higher ed. There seemed to be little comprehension on some people's part that while access is there on paper, it isn't necessarily smooth, easy or even acheivable access. I think there is a gap between expectations and the reality, and I don't think that is entirely due to the cuts of now. Although cuts generally won't be helping matters.
I am not a fan (at all) of the Italian education system (which is why my son goes to british independant school) but what it does instil is a greater appreciation that either you grab your opportunities now, and you invest your energies in that in a focused manner, or perhaps they won't be there in the future. Which isn't entirely a bad thing, you do see far fewer young people trapped by early and significantly undersupported parenhood for example, which in part is down their lack of illusion that anybody other than themself and their family will plug any gaps between their resources and their needs.
But I would like to see more opp. for education outside of the compulsory age group here. I know a few people in not well paid jobs delaying family, marriage, leaving home til their very late 20s or beyond becuase they are paying for night school to get their middle school or high school diploma. If the gov here would aid transition from brick to online delivery at least then that could go a long way to creating wider access to education because online can remove so many of the physical/time/cost roadblocks.
We are really lucky as English speakers becuase there is so much lower cost, good quality education availble in the distance model. The OU is a spectacular achievement for a nation. Pity its funding got so massively slashed. But I expect the brick unis would have been unhappy at the OU being able to offer vastly subsidised places while they could not.