Fees for 18 year old in Further Education

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DD is 17 years old. She is currently at a 6th form college doing her A Levels (AS levels done - will take full A levels next spring when she will have just turned 18).

The A levels that she is taking are geared towards a career in tourism/business. She now feels that she's gone down the wrong career path and is expressing an interest in nursing.

She's considering finishing her A levels then embarking on a 2 year BTEC Health and Social care diploma (at the same college which actually takes pupils aged from 16-24yrs) to allow her to apply for nursing at univ.

My question is will we have to pay for the BTEC course or is education free at this level forpeople under that age of 24??

I have tried to contact the college but the finance dept is closed until 25th August.

I think they normally get three years post-16 funding so if she's definite she ought to think about changing from this September not waiting a year.

If she has 3 A Levels she will not get funding for a BTEC as it is a 'full' L3 qualification, she can do the course but will have to take out a loan.

Thanks for the replies - will have to sit down and have a chat with her.

what a levels is she doing at the moment, because there are some nursing courses at uni that will just look at ums points scores and not mind too much about the subject

Many universities offer courses with foundation years, specifically designed for students who want sciency careers, with non-science A levels.

They absolutely exist for Medicine, so they must for nursing.

Here we go, here's one:

courses.uwe.ac.uk/B900/2014

What is she currently studying OP?

Only Birmingham's nursing degree lets you in with one of:

Biology, Psychology or Sociology

and any other two A Levels.

www.birmingham.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/med/nursing.aspx?OpenSection=EntryRequirements

Looks like it's worth doing some real investigating on uni websites!

This foundation course looks good too:

www.liv.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/foundation-to-health-studies-year-0/overview/

Sorry, I've got really carried away here! My youngest DD is just about to start her nursing degree, so I've quite enjoyed getting to grips with the uni websites!