"A" levels or BTEC in Sport levels 2/3?

[WhatNextMatey]

My son has just been "offered" a "scholarship" BTEC Level 2/3 in Sport, which he is quite excited about.

This, possibly, instead of doing 'A' levels at school after his GCSEs. Obviously current revising is putting him off studying further. He is definitely bright, though not especially academic, predicted average grades ranges of 5-6-7 I would say.

I do believe in "following your dream", regardless of whether or not its the academic/uni route that lots of people favour.

However, I'm not sure how useful this course would be. You don't have to be brilliant at sports to do it, though they did a short trial before the offer. I think most average young footballers could get on the course, my son is good at football and "reading the game" but I would not say brilliant; he's never been scouted for example. Its easy for young lads to be carried away by dreams of premier league etc, do you think?

Any thoughts or experience of this?

Thank you.

I also posted this question in secondary education talk.

Is it being held at a private school if he has a scholarship? It is a fairly standard BTEC and the level 3 is equivalent to A level.

It depends. Will it keep him motivated? More so than A Levels? I teach BTEC level 3 (though in a different subject) and many of my students are far more motivated than they would have been had they stayed at school - they prefer the focus on the practical elements of the subject and the fact that the majority of what they do is rooted in the industry they hope to go into one way or another.

The main thing that parents worry about, IME, is whether doing this rather than A Levels is limiting. Assuming that your DS wants to go into something related, then it won't hold him back. All of my current Year 13 students have offers for Higher Ed - 8/10 of them are going on to further study in the area that they're currently taking, but two are going in totally different directions and it hasn't held them back in terms of university offers.

The scholarship thing will be because it’s connected to a football club it will be classed as a private course or possibly delivered by the club on behalf of the college.

My dd is doing something similar but with dance/musical theatre. However her course was very competitive to get onto (she was offered places at 3 schools/colleges) and required 2 rigorous auditions. She’s doing Level 6 but there are places offering Level 3.

My son’s PE teacher went a similar route by all means except he was in the football club’s Academy, got into the Reserves but got injured. The Btec in sport led to teacher training.

Unless your ds has been offered terms at the club I’d tell him to treat it like any Btec in Sport but delivered by the club not the college. Is that what he wants to do or has he been sold a pipe dream.