UK School leaving age help.

[Nano334]

Hi,
My son who is 16 in May is looking to be a website designer where he codes the website and that and we a very confused on the law regarding school leaving age.
We are confused because in the scenario we are in, there is nothing in regards to it and therefore we need people to help us understand by answering our questions.
Firstly, if my son is unable to get into the college he wants to get in and ends up having to work from home and be a freelancer, what will happen as the law is you have to stay in education but what if that is not available?
Furthermore, what action will even be taken if my son does not abide by this law? Will I get into trouble because I cannot find a place for him to get his further education?
Lastly, I heard that if the young person being my son in this instance is 16 by a certain date and also passes (gets a C) his core exams (English, Math) he does not have to go into further education?
Any help/insight is appreciated Thank You!

The law says he has to stay in some form of education until 18. This could be sixth form, college or apprenticeship. The law is designed because GCSEs alone do not provide a high enough level of education for future career choices.

I know many proffersional coders and they are all educated to degree level.

The school leaving age applies at end of June, however this is a misnomer as they now need to be in work, education or training until 18. If he doesn't get English and/or Maths he would need to resit at a college anyway. He could look into an apprenticeship which would include relevant training. Your child benefit etc will stop unless you can provide appropriate details and I'm not sure self employment at 16 would qualify. How would you support him financially? In practice I suspect few LAs follow up non-registration in education.

Depends where in the UK you are. The rules in England, Scotland and Ireland are different.

England:
If he is looking to do A levels (eg Maths, Computer Science + 1 other), but doesn't meet requirements he can do a BTEC instead.
If he is looking to do a Level 3 BTEC (e.g. Computing or even Web Design) but doesn't meet requirements he can do a Level 2 one first and then progress.
If he can't get on to a Level 2 course then to be honest I wouldn't expect him to have the skills needed to be a web designer.

depends - if he is in Wales it won't matter.

Spoke to the education department over this as dd is leaving college after 1 year, aged 17. (We know several pupils from her old school who didn't continue with education post 16 and went working instead)

I was told in theory you must be in education or apprenticeship until you are 18 but if you aren't as long as you are not thinking about claiming any benefits there is little they can do about it.
If it is of any consequence dd and the others she knows have all started businesses

If he wants to do web design then there are apprenticeships and Btec courses available. These will help him earn as he works and he will be in a much better position to freelance later.

Freelance web design is very difficult as there are literally thousands of people doing it, often incredibly cheaply. If you put web design into a site like people per hour or fiver you will see just how cheap it is to get a designer and how many there are.

Having a good reference and some industry experience is incredibly important. It's hard to stand out and being 16 with no education beyond gcse won't enable you to do that.

It's not an easy out, he needs to find a course he can do. There will be one.

I think he just won't be able to claim any benefits. I've known a few drop outs and no one is bothered about a17yo sitting in their bedroom doing nothing.

Long term though, wouldn't it be beneficial for your DS to do a course?