Engineering - Alevels or apprenticeship/BTec?

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DS2 wants to be an engineer. A bit vague about what kind of engineer but maybe electronics or computing.

He seems to be on track to get GCSE 7+ plus for all the sciences, computing and maths. Some maths papers he's doing now he's scoring 90%+

However, he's going to struggle to get 4+ in English and History.

He's determined to leave school and do an apprenticeship. Is this the best route for him? I feel like he should be aiming for a good uni but understand the poor written skills will hold him back, both in the likely offers and the course itself.

I worry about the quality of apprenticeships on offer and also about specialising too soon.

What would your advice be?

bubbles thank you for replying, that's all really useful information. Will encourage him to do some research and start thinking along the lines of what he pictures his career to look like. Do you know which universities would offer sound mechanical engineering courses?

For an interest in cars look at Warwick. Much of the mech eng degree is delivered by staff working in the Warwick Manufacturing Group (part of the uni) and has excellent links with many car makers including JLR.

Thank you error he's on half term now so will set him some tasks of finding out info and creating a plan of action...

I was going to suggest Warwick too. Great Engineering universities are also Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds, Nottingham and Manchester. There are others of course.

Why not try applying for apprenticeship at big engineering companies like

careers.rolls-royce.com/united-kingdom/students-and-graduates/apprenticeships-and-school-leavers

Their schemes are fab and you get a qualification at the end of it. I would highly recommend it

Does anyone know if the big engineering companies help apprentices with relocation/accommodation? I. E is a 16 yo apprentice expected/supported to live away from home or is he tied to local opportunities?

The company I work for the apprentices are tied to location.

This is such a difficult question without knowing what your son wants to do.

I recruit grads for my team and look at which Uni they went to and the class of degree. I don't look at their prior qualifications (if they met the Uni entrance requirements for one of the top Unis then that's good enough for me!). If they are applying for engineering jobs after they have gained chartership I am more interested in their specialism and experience.

Many decent Unis now accept the BTec that is worth 3 A Levels but nearly all decent ones will want maths alongside it (same for computer science). The more competitive Unis will normally want to see A Levels instead - Maths, Physics and another science (or geography). Chemical will want Chemistry instead of physics.
Computer science degrees don't need computer science, they need Maths.
Having further maths as a 4th A Level will be advantageous (and is a requirement at some Unis unless your school doesn't offer it).
Don't think that a degree apprenticeship is easy to get - competition is fierce. The apprentices we recruit turn down RG Unis to join us and often have A*AA grades and I haven't heard of any with BTechs (it doesn't mean they don't exist though).

The grads in our IT Dept mainly have Maths degrees

The MEng is obviously better than a BEng so will open more doors but you can do the masters after. Anecdotally I have been told that if you enrol directly onto MEng it makes the funding easier.

If you want to be a crane operator, a gas engineer, a BT engineer, a motor mechanic etc etc then it's a completely different path.

Your son needs to sit down and work out what kind of engineer he wants to be and work back from that. Mind you my DDs in year 12 and still doesn't have a clue. If that's the case then your son needs to do A Levels in facilitating subjects to keep as many options open as possible.

I am with @BubblesBuddy - it would make life a lot simpler if the title 'engineer' was protected so that we know we are talking about the same thing!!

We sing from the same hymn sheet bpisok. It would make MN discussions on engineering a lot easier!

I too think there is a misunderstanding about the calibre of employees on grad apprenticeship schemes. Posters seem to think they are easy to get and that lower qualifications and grades will open those doors, but they won’t.