19yo with decent GCSEs but no more now thinking of University

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DS2 has had a shocking three years. Lockdown was horrible for him, but he's had other things to deal with too, including a real tragedy.

Anyway he got pretty good GCSEs, including maths at grade 8, but hasn't achieved any qualifications since. He's been working, but not particularly successfully, which even if I'm biased, is understandable in his circumstances.

He's now considering Uni, possibly to do maths and we're struggling to understand the routes open to him.

It seems there's nowhere to do Alevels locally F2F, the local FE colleges aren't offering them and schools/6th colleges obviously won't take a 19yo. (He'll be 20 next academic year). He could do Alevels via one of many distance learning providers, but I'm not sure how good this would be for him. He really needs a reason to get up and out and see some people. Also 3 Alevels by distance learning seems a big ask to me, although I suppose he would work at least PT to get him out a bit.

Or access courses, but I'm not sure if Universities like them as much as Alevels, especially for a young person? Plus there doesn't seem to be anything suitable locally (our local college only offers things like child studies and public service) so we'd be looking at living away or distance learning.

What would you recommend? What do "children" who have second thoughts about not doing 6th form do?

I think if he hasn’t done maths for three years he will have to work very hard to take maths A level and then go on to a maths degree.

He'll need three "A" levels, at a decent grade, not just Maths.

I can’t answer your main question but I can tell you from experience that studying for A’ Levels by oneself at that age would be hard. There’s nothing to help you stay motivated - particularly if you hit a difficult or a boring topic - if you’re not caught up in the impetus of working alongside fellow students and being guided by face to face tutors. Far easier to decide it’s not working out and give up.

So … I hope he finds a route that involves studying within a group.

Yes, I know, but what are his options?

He has done some maths, he's been doing a level 4 engineering apprenticeship, but it seems the maths is the only bit of the course he's been doing.

As I said he's had a terrible time of it. He needs to take responsibility for what he hasn't done, but there's nothing to be achieved for piling on him over that. There's been times when he's done really well to brush his teeth, but he's starting to feel more positive and look to the future now.

Yes, this is absolutely what worries me, but I've looked a lot and so has he and that option doesn't seem to exist.

I'm assuming he's not looking for this coming academic year?

My usual advice is an Access course, possibly followed by a Foundation year at uni. Maths is a bit different though as I don't think any of the Access courses have sufficiently high level (ie A level equivalent) maths content.

In this case I'd suggest OU maths modules. He would have to tackle them on his own, but doesn't have to do a full time workload - 2 x 30 credit modules may well be enough to get him onto the Foundation Year of a Maths degree.

An alternative route could be an Access in Science if he could live away - but again he should check the maths content and ask his target unis if they'd consider that for a maths degree.

Access courses are widely accepted btw, even for under 21s. Certainly in the post-92 sector.

Actually if he's doing level 4 engineering is he likely to gain a qualification? That just might be enough for a FY.

Also to add - a strategy could be to target the crappest lowest grade uni for FY on the basis that he'd be more likely to get an offer - he could then move and do years 1-3 elsewhere.

No, he's not going to pass. There's been a catalogue of errors, neither the employer nor the college seem to know exactly what his position is re the course, but he says the only element he's up to date on is the maths.

Thank you. He looked at the OU "certificate" for 60 credits. Would that effectively be equivalent to an access course?

He's not looking at uni for the coming year, obviously, but he would like to get started on working towards it ASAP.

Thank you. He looked at the OU "certificate" for 60 credits. Would that effectively be equivalent to an access course?

It would be equivalent in size to half an access course. But it would be at the level of the first year of a degree, so higher than Access. Which unis should accept - he needs to demonstrate his maths ability and this should do that sufficiently.

But given distance learning might be a struggle, please encourage him to contact target unis direct to see how they'd view the OU cert first. I suspect most would say yes.

I would into taking higher education modules from the open university. He wont need a levels and his credits would be transferrable. Saving him a couple of years.

Your first port of call really should be his current college as he's doing a level 4 apprenticeship to see what can be salvaged from this. Why is he going to fail? Is there any option to repeat/resit part of it or transfer onto another course?
Who has he spoken to at the college about the problems, it may be time to put in a formal complaint if the course leader/employer have let him down. If he has had extenuating circumstances (family tragedy?) has this been taken into account?

The current college is a shambles, the only one for 40 miles. The course co ordinator left a couple of months ago (she told the students because she wasn't getting paid) and no one at the college seems to be able to say what has/hasn't been done. DS "knows" he hasn't done enough though.

The employer wants to help and it might be possible to re do a year, but it would be with the same college and DS really just wants a fresh start, away from both college and the employer, where he is knows as the boy with the terrible trauma who let himself and everyone else down 😥

I think there'd be a good case for showing that college have let him down, but he can't be awarded the qualification if he hasn't done the work....can he?

The problem was for ages, he was telling us all what we wanted to hear and we all thought it was going well.

Also I recommend doing more research into university courses. A maths degree is academically very difficult but there are a lot more options out there than traditional school subjects.

Hi OP, I am so sorry to hear about your experience with the college, that must be so disheartening. I really think you and DS should get on to the college management as soon as possible to find out what can be salvaged from this, it may be best to request a meeting with the Head and yourself/DS if noone further down is helping. I am not an expert on FE maybe someone else can advise.
I appreciate he may want to walk away but if there is no other local FE college that really limits his options.

Why? Wy does he want to go to university and do a maths degree? What does he actually want to do with it?

Ah well. ATM just for the point of studying something he finds absorbing. I don't know after that, but it feels important that he's at least showing some interest in life again.

It might never happen, but doing the Alevels/access course/OU certificate would at least give him some purpose for now.

It really has been a very difficult time for him (and me!).

I think a lot of people/starting university and definitely Alevel study don't really know what they want to do with it?

Is there a connexions service in your area ? At 19 he still meets their criteria ....can be useful to have a chat with a 3rd party on options..

What does he want to do....after uni? What sort of maths does he like is it the theoretical or the more practical/ applied...
It maybe worth him going to some uni open days and looking at prospectuses and then talking to uni admissions about how to get there..much better to do f2f i think..
Helped my ds get some clarity..

Another possible options for employers who think more open minded than some are the forces. ..good maths skills always welcome and a wide range of opportunities in army/raf/navy....

Could he do a distance learning course and have a tutor each week or fortnight to go over the lesson and coursework and any bits he needs someone to explain it in a different way so he understands it all.

Also has you Ds done any ECAs over the years where he has progressed to the higher grades as they also can be used to boost UCAS points.

Dd has 4 GCSEs but because she did the grades in various ECAs she technically has enough UCAS points to get into university

Is he capable of living alone? If so there are definitely sixth form college who take slightly older students I had a 20 year old in my English A level class, your local college sounds dire, do you have any family he could stay with in term time to saves a college elsewhere?

He's cap

Degree apprenticeship?