Is it possible to get fully funded Btec online at 17 years old

[Emoj]

DC is currently in college studying A levels, due to sit AS imminently. For a variety of reasons doesn't want t complete second year of college. Is it possible to get fully funded btec's online and for them to actually be a worthwhile qualification. DC is very bright and college currently failing them (funding issues, not actually employing qualified teachers etc) and no viable option locally, hence wanting to change what they are doing. I am finding it hard to find information online though about being able to study remotely and whether it would be fully funded or not.

Unless your DC has an EHCP it is highly unlikely you are going to find a funded online course. As to whether it would be worthwhile I don’t know.

Btec's tend to have practical elements and group work making them less suitable for on line.
As a group of qualifications they have good value and are accepted by many universities.

No

I would have thought that it was impossible to do a Btec course online as they contain a lot of practical elements/group work.

I know lots of students at my sons college who started their Btec aged 17 either after GCSE re-sits or a change of mind/direction

It looks like there are a couple of engineering/It type Btecs you can do online but only via a private fee paying college

No. But you could explore different local insitutions. Is he at a Sixth Form? You could look at FE, or vice versa.

They will ask him lots of hard questions, he will need to be able to explain why he wants to change and "my old college doesn't have good teachers' isn't good enogh, minaly as "unqualified teachers" covers a huge range of staff - I was unqualified for a year or so, whilst I morphed my 2 degrees into a teaching qualificiation. It's not an unusual way into post compulsory sector teachers and many/the majority of BTEC specialists start that way.

There is a students in my sons year who changed colleges after starting a Btec at his local college. Teaching was very poor and he wasn't being challenged. No-one asked him any questions about that at his new college. He did have to repeat the first year.

Part of that really doesn't seem likely. He will have been asked a lot of questions at interview, not in the classroom, where his right to confidentiality would have been respected. But they most certainly WILL have asked him a lot of questions when he applied - not least because of the issues of transferring his funding!

if a student has the correct GCSE qualifications and the college has a space available admission cannot be denied. They have to follow their admissions criteria of which an interview cannot form part (apart from advising on choice of course)

The student now travels over 30 miles to get to his new college.

OK! I'll shelve my decades worth of experience in such interviews shall I?

What you are missing is that those interviwws are a 2-way street. Any applicant can be denied a place for specific reasons, over and above entry criteria, these are national regulations not the choice of individual colleges. I have, on occasion, recommended a place not be offered because the student just wasn't willing to accept that their own behaviour was part of their problem. Codes of Conduct were offered and rejected.

Others actually talk to us during that interview and state clearly that they don't want to start a new course, they are being pressured at home. We offer alternatives and signposting to other services. No offer will be made at that point.

I suspect we are actually talking slightly at cross purposes, but that's the nature of boards like this!

The law over-rides individual college decisions.

PRH and Admissions are the experts on this though, not me

I did say that @Comefromaway - and I was part of Admissions Team for quite a while

As I said, I think we are talking at cross purposes a bit. Not really disagreeing on the whole, just the nitty gritty. None of which jhelps OP - sorry @Emoj

Comefromaway FE colleges and sixth form colleges aren’t bound by the admissions code like school sixth forms are, so while they do have to follow their admissions policy, which has to be objective, fair and transparent, I think it can include interviews.

Thanks everyone. DC is miserable where they are, and have up until this point always been very enthusiastic about education. The college has a lot of issues, staff morale low and the experienced staff leaving in droves and we can see DC is not being challenged at all and is learning nothing. Because they are so bright they are wavering about leaving or not, but not sure how they would cope mentally with another year, and worried they would end up with poor grades due to lack of teaching, which would then be of little value to them. No interest in going to uni as unsure of career path as yet, but would if needed for a career specific role. DC know they can get full time employment in current part time job which is not chosen career bit would at least mean doing something if they did decide to leave college. So hard to know what to advise without a crystal ball!!

Could your son write this year off and start afresh at a college next year? My Year 11 child will start college 35 miles from home and have to travel on a train and then bus to get there. He wants to do a very specialised BTEC Sport performance and coaching and includes 7 hours cricket coaching each week at Edgbaston. Lots of people compute to work. I just see it as starting as he means to go on. He will have to be up early each morning and I will drive him to train station. It will take him 1 hour and 5 mins to compute each way. He is happy to do it because he is desperately keen to do the course they offer.