Ideas for my nearly 18-year-old's next steps after leaving education

[sincerestwonders]

My daughter is nearly 18 and I have begun asking her what she would like to do as she enters adulthood. She has done volunteering, specialized study and low level work for the last nearly 2 years hasnt been to Sixth Form and lost almost all her old friends when she was 16. We have visited several university campuses she liked the first one but she doesnt seem to be interested in a degree or heavy study for 3 years. Her idea is to move out rent in a HMO or such and like work your way up or try different workplaces. She would suit Administration, Languages or retail work. She doesnt have any prevalent "interests" at the minute she used to be interested in photojournalism or something to do with magazines. She cant drive so would enjoy living in a city that isnt too big with a good selection of shops and a international social scene and opportunities to join groups. Any ideas?

What grades did she get at GCSE and what specialized study did she do post-16?

Gcse grades
9 in Spanish
8 in French
8 in ICT
Failed maths and english

I’d say maybe some sort of apprenticeship might be good. It’s very easy to slip into retail or hospitality or even care work which is hard work and badly paid and lots of shops (apart from supermarkets) have closed or gone online only in recent years.
I think an apprenticeship would be the best
option as you get experience and ongoing training/ support

I think apprenticeship too. But we were supposed to be finishing 18 months of post 16 education at home beforehand as she needs math and english

How about a year in college to do maths and English and something else she is interested in and then an apprenticeship? Or some colleges have night classes she could attend too.

Wow, she's a linguist! Could you enter her privately for Functional Skills English and Maths? I think the exams are online and year round. That would really help for apprenticeships and put her back on a path to GCSE if she wants to try again. With the GCSEs she already has and those grades, if she gets GCSEs in English in mathematics she could go on to many apprenticeships with the civil service, local goverment or the NHS (administration and others).

There are not many apprenticeships which don't require English and maths, but google "Tesco stronger start" - she could get onto that, I think, and maybe move on from that? McDonalds is often derided but offers quite good apprenticeships too with progression into management roles, but I don't know the requirements.

I found the English to be complex. She hates reading any book thst isnt a languages textbook or graphic novel. I am about to start her with functional skills maths.

Languages are good for hospitality work, hotels for example or bus tours. Agree that trying to pass English and Maths would be helpful and maybe looking for a languages course to follow up get Spanish and French.

OP's not getting the answers she wanted on her other thread (she is, quite rightly, getting roasted on that one) so she's started a new one...

It is quite odd that she is so gifted in foreign languages but cannot pass an exam in her own. Have you ever had any educational psychologist input?

TUI offers a cabin crew apprenticeship programme which could be a fun thing to do for a year. It requires English and maths GCSEs or equivalent though, so she would have to get those functional skills in first.

She needs level 2 English and Maths. Did she not take other subjects or not pass them? Due to a learning issue or just not engaged. English language does not require much text, just to extract comprehension and grammar, Language study beyond gcse includes literature, film and so on.

She would have done a Spanish A level but its NOTHING like gcse you have to write yucky essays

Are you

• the teenager herself posting in the guise of a parent?
• parent quoting the teenager?
• parent projecting own views...?

Parent projecting own views.

She hates reading books and trying to decipher "messages" and "what the author thinks" GCSE was mostly expressing opinions and memorizing sentences or doing like facebook/blogpost style writing

The GCSE English that she needs to do is English Language.
She doesn't need to do English Literature so there's no worry about not enjoying the novels.
She really needs to get the English and Maths. Can she do them at a college?
After that....just apply for jobs she likes the look of.

Those grades are really unusual, did she have school attendance issues or does she have SEN? What has she been studying since leaving school?

The best job or course of further study will be something she is really interested in. If she's not sure what that is at the moment that's ok, a lot of people find it later in life.

Ah…. Funnily enough she posted exactly the same thing about the D of E group some weeks ago, but seems to have name changed for some reason.

Home Ed since 8. Apparently all other subjects were ‘crappy’ so she didn’t bother and OP didn’t make her.

LOL at OP thinking uni could be an option though!

When is she doing the maths and English resits

She really needs to get the maths and English sorted as the lack will really limit her future options, and not just in the short term.

You need to hook her up with a trained careers adviser. The National Careers Service would be a good place to start. There are also hundreds of job profiles, diagnostics and qualification requirements on the site.

If she does an apprenticeship, she'll have to do level 2 English and maths (functional skills) but if she's capable of top grades in languages, I have to wonder how she's reached nearly 18 without having prioritised GCSEs in these critical subjects.

Calling essays 'yucky' when talking about Spanish A level is revealing. Are you using that kind of childish, demotivating, limiting language to your DD?

Was about to say the same as @OccasionalHope . She needs to get her maths and English. Look at ‘adult education classes’. Ie night school.

If she doesn’t enjoy studying, then uni isn’t for her.

She needs to get on a schemes such as The Kings Trust (formerly Princes trust) to get support, training and advice .

https://www.kingstrust.org.uk/support-our-work/donate

You really need to push her to do her maths and English. She is going to struggle to find a job without them. My student DD works part time in retail and even they ask for maths and English. She doesn’t have to enjoy it those subjects but she absolutely does need to do them.