What can a 16yo do with no qualifications?

[CollegeConcern]

My stepdaughters, though delightful, are not very academic or hard-working. Despite my best efforts, they have been slightly behind expectations throughout their school years and the eldest (year 10) is now predicted to get mostly 3s in her GCSEs.

Their dad went into a hard family trade they have no interest in, and their mum, stepdad and I went to university. From what I can see A-Levels and most technical courses at college require five GCSEs at 4+. She has no interest in childcare or beauty, and seems to be vaguely assuming she’ll get into A-Levels because that’s what her friends plan to do.

What options are there for her if she doesn’t get high enough grades for Sixth Form? Shop work or hospitality?

I think it's time for a strong conversation with her.

The world is getting harder by the day. Her generation will be lucky to own a house even with a good academic record AND a good, well paid career. Things that previous generations would have taken for granted will be way out of reach for her unless she makes plans for success right now.

She needs to catch up on her studying somehow, whether that's tutoring or self-led learning. This world is brutal on everyone, but especially women so she needs to equip herself for success, especially whilst her education is free. Her future self will thank her for it.

I watched an interesting series last week on IPlayer. It’s called The 9-5 with Stacey Dooley. She takes 5 not very academic 16-18 year olds and each episode introduces them to a different job - an airport, a factory, a restaurant, a call centre and a care home. It was fascinating to watch. A girl who was a bit useless and very negative thrived at the care home. It might be an interesting watch for your stepdaughter, to show her some options maybe

Are there any colleges with open days coming up? If so could you take her for a look round to start getting ideas, and maybe conversations there might help her realise she needs to consider other options - I know the sixth form college my son is planning to go to offers foundation courses which include the opportunity to retake maths and English at the same time and can then lead on to level 3 courses after that.

She needs to go to Further Education College, not a sixth form college. She can go for two years.

You need a conversation with your DH about her not moving in - basically tell him you are dead set against the idea. If he agrees with you, then another conversation needs to happen with DH, you, DSD and her mum, making clear that will definitely not be happening. Nip it in the bud ASAP.

When the mum's benefits for DSD stop, DSD claims as an adult in her own right, and has to prove she is looking for work like any other unemployed person. She can they pay her mum for her 'keep' from her benefits.

Level 2 vocational courses or apprenticeships, alongside Maths and English resits or functional skills qualifications.

There’s lots of open events near me over the holidays. One of DDs friends is doing a horror make up session at a local college, she won’t go there, is just going for the fun of it.
She might visit somewhere and just like the place, easier to pick something to do if you know where you want to go.
Her friend who is getting top marks is struggling too, she hasn’t enjoyed school so isn’t engaged in staying in education. So she’s doing some taster days.

We had a sixth form meeting last week and they said if DD totally failed she could stay and do maths and English resit plus 3 other new GCSEs. Then do a levels the year after.

This is the reality for so many young people .The Government would have us all believe they are a bunch of lazy little skivers sitting around.Sadly with even care work there are basic exams needed .Maths and English for Nursery Nursing or Hairdressing for example.You are right to encourage your DSD.

nearly all further education colleges have a dhole raft of courses suitable for teens who don’t pass a levels.

these vary from very basic skills for living type courses for very learning disabled students who do not even get 1s at gcse to vocational courses.

the vocational courses usually include beauty, hairdressing, catering, music technology, plumbing, motor mechanic, bricklaying, science technician etc etc.

the vocational courses run at three levels. Level 1 is for students who don’t have a 4 in English or maths. So they might do level 1 catering while also doing resit lessons in English and maths.

level 2 is for students straight from school who have English and maths at grade 4. You can also move up to it after you have done level 1, whether you passed your resits or not.

level 3 usually requires you to have English and maths and if you don’t have them by that point you will need to get a job.

Have you been to any college open days yet ? There are lots of courses, for all sorts of grades and abilities. This notion you have to go and do A-levels is just not true.

A lot of the Open Days might be finished by now though. What has her careers teacher said?

School doesn’t fit everybody and she still has (almost) as many options available to her. There are office jobs out there and government jobs, jobs in the health sector etc etc that she can work her way up through or as you say retail or hospitality, jobs with animals, also courses such as library studies (was just looking at one this morning as the pay for librarians in eg universities is HUGE!) Not to mention apprenticeships! She has the same chances as other job hunters. Best of luck

If she's on 3s now she'll probably manage 4s if she knuckles down. Get her to choose her a levels now and see what is needed.

My ds tries VERY hard and might just about manage 3s across the board, he's intelligent enough but just can't perform in exams. He's probably going to do a course in hospitality and catering at college, it looks quite fun and starts at level 1 if needed and at least he'll be well trained to work in a pub or coffee shop.

I assume it could lead onto a useful career or just give him a bit of time and breathing space to choose an apprenticeship.

If she could work a bit harder now and turn those 3s to 4s she will be in a much better position so if it's more laziness than ability she needs a wake up call. Much better to get the grades now than to have to do again next year as part of an apprenticeship or resits

@dottydodah but the reality here is that the child is lazy! We can’t all be academic geniuses but she needs to understand - and the adults around her need to help her ‘get it’ - that if she doesn’t work she will have severely limited options and choices in life. She needs a plan A , B and C for her future. She needs to be asked what happens if … what happens then… how will you pay for food, rent etc. Maybe involving her in the family budget would be good so she understands that real life costs and has to be paid for in adulthood.

I’m afraid that I think there was much to be said for the immigrant parents approach of ‘you don’t work, you don’t eat’. Life doesn’t carry passengers.

There are enough people who are not lucky enough to be able bodied or healthy or have a family that need society and taxpayer support without us having to support the idle and ignorant.

I appreciate that this isn’t a message to be delivered by a stepparent though!! That’s a hard job - often a lot of responsibility, love, worry and concern, but no authority to do anything. Responsibility without power. 😬

And all this British ‘ he/ she isn’t academic stuff. This is almost unheard of in many societies where it is believed that all can be taught and understand maths etc through hard work, serious mental disability aside. Yes, there are differing levels of mental intelligence but it’s amazing what can be accomplished with decent teaching and hard work by the learner.

It sounds like you understand the reality OP but your DSD doesn’t and neither does her mum. She won’t get into a Sixth Form College - I’d take her to a local FE college to have a look around. Similarly apprenticeships might be a good way forward but she still needs grades in some things. If she’s really struggling, focus on getting those Maths and English grades first. It’s ok to not know what you want to do at 16 but she needs to understand that she won’t just roll into A-Levels with poor grades.

I do agree with you, she’s not unintelligent but she’s not focused or a hard worker. She’s a very sweet girl and I worry about her a lot!

She chose to live primarily with her mum as a pre-teen, where there’s no push to do homework or have study time, and she’s seen her mum have just as nice a life as me and her dad do without really working, so I suspect she sees work as optional and thinks we’re foolish for working full time. But the chances of SD getting a three bed council house in a nice area and getting to potter around for her whole life are basically nonexistent. Society has changed a lot in the last twenty years and it’s going to be much harder for her.

We’re in a position where we could financially support her, but I don’t want to do that unless she’s actually working hard to better her own life.

Round here the dog walkers make very good money. Dog grooming too. She might be just fine.

She needs to work a bit harder to get a career of some sort otherwise how will she pay her way in life.

My DD was like this in Y10 and 11, didn’t have any motivation, really didn’t bother to revise for her GCSEs, she’s not stupid but was incredible lazy and just thought opportunities would drop in her lap. She also developed crippling emtophobia and couldn’t cope with being “trapped” in exam halls so the whole period was a disaster.

She ended up with 3 passes at a 4 which luckily enough was good enough for her to enrol onto a L2 Business course. She is now finishing BTECH L3 Business with a predicted distinction and heading off to do a BA in Business and Marketing in September.

Sometimes school just isn’t a good fit for some reason plus they need a little bit of time to grow up and decide what they want to do for themselves.

It also took 5 resits to get her 4 in Maths!!!

DD of a friend of mine is doing an animal related course at college. Started at Level 2 and due to finish Level 3 this year. She has some mild SEN and the college has been great (unlike school). She loves it there.
I think I would try to focus on passing maths and/or English if at all possible and then just the best of the rest.
I would say that once a DC is in some of sort training/work (you can do three years at FE college free), I would not be in too much of a rush for them to be independent, hopefully that will come with time.

Could she sign up for a twelve week Princes Trust Course in September which would equip her with skills which may help her decide what she wants to?
They often arrange work experience and work with other agencies to help young people into work or education ?

Does her school have a careers advisor she could have a meeting with? xx

Please get them to talk to a good careers practitioner, for the realities of what next and even apprenticeships require functional skills, including sciences for some, so they are not easy options, or for those with no qualifications at 16. Colleges will roll them back to L1 and look for them to gain their English and maths, as 16 year old need to be in education or a job with training.

Colleges have access courses for students with no qualifications and they functional maths and English alongside it. I do recommend that as soon as she’s old enough that she is strongly encouraged to work somewhere like McDonald’s where she can experience what it’s like to work at a minimum wage job, but that said they do have career opportunities … a relative now is an area manager having started at 16 with no qualifications.

The best thing would be for her to go to college on a Level 2 course alongside resitting her maths and English.

She will find it very difficult to get a job or apprentiship without her maths and English. My firm does employ one such apprentice but we struggled to get a college to take them on and they are having to do Functional Skills.

The rules for going into employment is that it has to lead to some kind of regulated qualification with approx 1 day a week spent in training. If it's not an apprentiship then a workplace would have to pay for this and again, most college courses require maths & English.

She won't be eligible for any benefits.