Is it true that clever people go to 6th form and people who aren't go to college

[thistimeiknowitsforreal]

Evening all,

It was always drummed into me that after GCSE`s that if you are intelligent you went to or stayed at school and went to 6th form depending on your previous circumstances.

But if you weren't good enough you went to college instead.

Whats your experience in this area ?

That`s good.

Also why not more HGV drivers

The schools in our area didn't have 6th forms and the college I attended churned out future doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects (including me)!

That`s good.
It is but it's not that simple and probably won't fully address the problem as a previous poster rightly pointed out - the pay and conditions will always be a factor.

Also why not more HGV drivers
An educated guess ( I work in careers so this is kind of my area) I would say that the nature of the job doesn't appeal to everyone - long shifts, lots of travel etc. It's not a particularly family friendly job either.

We should be pushing more A level students into those careers in my opinion

We shouldn't be pushing anyone into any career!!!
We should be making sure young people have the information and support they need to make informed choices about their career plans.

I don't really understand the link between whether academic kids tend to go to sixth forms or colleges, and encouraging kids to become HGV drivers and nurses?

Are you suggesting that some vocations aren't promoted enough to kids? I'm trying to encourage my teenagers to get the best academic qualifications they can to keep their career options as open as possible at this stage. There's nothing wrong with being an HGV driver whatsoever but there's a lower salary ceiling than for other occupations.

There never has been a diminution of people wanting to be nurses. They really didn’t see a dip. The bigger issue is increasing training places. Nurse degree courses are over subscribed. I don’t agree that nurses, as degree holding professionals, should be exempt from the loans system. Teachers earn about the same. So do lots of other grads in shortage areas. The loans are fair for all. The bigger issue is nurses giving up and leaving. Or working for agencies and earning more but not getting the NHS pension benefit.

We absolutely cannot force young people to do anything. We need to give them info about choices. Where I live, colleges do vocational courses that don’t require A levels. Not all young people should do A levels. Some should work and do vocational qualifications or do full time vocational qualifications at the colleges., But some jobs don’t appeal to many so there are shortages. Especially care home workers.

Why not push to people into careers and into training for these professions ?

Well perhaps some should be promoted more yes.

It could open up new avenues for some people.

@thistimeiknowitsforreal
To become a nurse you need Biology A level. Not everyone takes this A level or is cut out to be a nurse. We don’t need more applicants, we need more training places to accommodate the people who do want to nurse! Other jobs are available in hospitals for non A level people.

Make road haulage a more attractive job and people might want it. Driving a train pays a lot more!

Why not push to people into careers and into training for these professions ?

Because it's not ethical to push people into careers they don't want to do. That's common sense surely?
How you you like it if someone pushed you into a career you had no interest in?

Rule one of good careers guidance is to be impartial.

*how would

To become a nurse you need Biology A level.

Less than a minute of research would have shown you this isn't true.

Re other people saying the number of applicants for nursing degrees didn't fall significantly with the introduction of tuition fee loans, this may be true but the profile of the applicants changed. One of the problems with nursing is that many nursing graduates either never work as nurses or else leave fairly early in their career. This is much more marked for people doing nursing degrees straight after sixth form, compared to those doing them later in life (e.g. after raising children). It was the mature applicants who were particularly deterred by having to take out loans, so the number of students was maintained but the number of years they were likely to work as nurses after graduation fell.

I think that's a load of b0ll0x

Does it matter if you go on to study sciences or arts at 6th form?

Your point is ?

Happy A level, T level, Btec results day.

Did you study by 6th form or college ?

I'm not sure your typical 18 year old is lurking about on MN .......

However, I worked on the phones in my university's Clearing call centre yesterday. I spoketo to students with a range of qualifications form a range of education providers.... I'm not sure what you're still trying to prove?

Just asking.

Hope everyone go the results they wanted/worked for ?

It’s the idea that “clever” is about academic subjects which aside from maybe a bit of art, is what 6th forms offer.
My DS is computer obsessed. Did a BTEC ext dip because he wanted to actually do what he loved for two years. His equally obsessed friend did four A levels at 6th form. Both doing Computer Science at RG top universities. Probably both should just use their skills in the workplace though. DS final project was already beyond what his insurance Uni third years produced.

What was the point in doing 4 A levels ?

I know plenty of kids that take 4 A levels (I did 4 too). Although it's now typically maths and further maths to make it up to four (for example, if you're doing engineering at uni).

Why wouldn't you want to take four? Appreciate that Uni offers only take into account three grades but it gives you room for one subject to have a grade slippage if you can cope with the extra workload.

The more well off children at my school seemed to stay on at sixth form but literally did the same a level courses that were offered by the local colleges.

It's a much more cosseted environment I think, but nothing to do with intelligence - that's just pure snobbery.

There were two kids from my school who went to sixth form and ended up at the same uni as me. Both left in the first term. I suspect it was too much of a leap having basically stayed at school until 18 then going straight to uni.

a) he’s clever, so 4 is what they suggest (the fourth is a humanities one to offset the maths heavy other 3)
b) UCAS points

Ah good old snobbery

There were two kids from my school who went to sixth form and ended up at the same uni as me. Both left in the first term. I suspect it was too much of a leap having basically stayed at school until 18 then going straight to uni.

Literally thousands and thousands of young people go straight from school to uni.
That's not why they dropped out.