Sport HNC/HNC vs Unrelated A-levels

[HeartVHeed]

Looking for advice from the wise MN on a heart vs head quandary.

DS yr11 will be sitting GCSEs in 2024 and is predicted 7-9s across the board.

He is considering 2 options:

1. School Sixth Form doing A-levels in Business Studies, Physics and Maths. Predicted 9, 8/9 and 7 respectively at GCSE.

BUT he is adamant that he doesn't want to go to university and has absolutely no idea what career might interest him that he could use these a-levels for. He would be choosing them based on subjects he enjoys doing.

When asked what he wants to do "career wise" he says he wants to be a professional at a sport he currently participates in and has started competing in this year.

Which leads me to option 2.

2. RPA/HNC/HND Sports Development Coaching. A particular College offers this qualification alongside practical coaching in his sport. The course is aimed specifically at those competing at national level and wanting to progress to international/professional level.

It's 3 days at college + 2 days practical and after 3 years he would have a HND alongside a coaching qualification in the sport and another qualification related to it.

BUT the college is 2 hours away from us and does not have its own accommodation so we would have to find (private?) student accommodation for him. Cost isn't an issue but he would only be be 16+9 months at enrolment.

My HEAD says we should be encouraging him to stay on at school. What I thought I wanted to do at 16 bore no resemblance to what I ended up doing as a career, so he should keep his options open.

The a-levels he is thinking about would open up more doors into careers that are well paid (engineering, AI, robotics, etc etc).

We could afford to pay for him to have the coaching element of the college course at weekends etc so he'd still be getting the development in his sport.

Not doing a-levels in those subjects with those predicted grades somehow feels "a waste".

My heart says encourage him to follow his heart.

I've always said that people should do a job they love and feel passionate about. Life is about living not working to pay bills.

I want him to travel and see the world, and this sport could be a great opportunity IF it turned out he was good at it.

But what if he isn't?

What if he doesn't make it as a professional?

What else could he do with a HND in Sports Development? The options seem fairly limited, none of which in all honesty I could see him liking.

Sensible me says a-levels, get a decent paying job and do the sport as a self funded amateur.

But I also wanted him to live his life to the max!

It's a shame he didn't take GCSE PE tbh - was it not offered by his school?

Yes it was, but at his school it is seen as "the doss about subject" - basically the one that those who are unlikely to do well at other subjects do because they "have" to choose a final gcse.

So he didn't want to do it!

This is a third option because he was quite keen on joining the RAF for a while........

@HeartVHeed

link to British Cycling’s DiSE programme here. If he can get selected on this he can do this alongside A levels so no need to choose one or the other.

https://www.Britishcycling.org.uk/coaching/article/DiSE

as I said, my DD is doing this for a different sport and just started y12 so all a bit new to us but I love that it runs alongside A levels or Btecs or other vocational course. Funded by Sport England.

Thanks @Nowfeeltheneedtopost I think they are very similar qualifications, content certainly looks similar.

I don't think he will be keen on the British Cycling one though, it's not the qualification that's the attracting factor, it's the practical race/mtb skills, the qualification coming with it is just a bonus 😅🤦🏽‍♀️😂

Ah OK. Well that's a shame. It's not a doss of course. My very academic DS2 took it for GCSE and A level alongside maths and biology. But it's hard to get past a peer aspect like that for sure.

It may well be different for different sports.

For my DD, attendance at a DiSE affiliated sixth form is by far and away the most common route to playing her sport at the elite level for 16-18yr olds in UK. It allows her to play the sport at highest level and best prepares her for next steps, especially sports scholarships to US universities.

So again, the DiSE qualification itself is secondary (especially as my DD sounds similar to your son in having anchieved all 8s and 9s in her GCSEs so was always going to do A levels). Our feeling was that if she was going to be doing 20hrs per week of her sport (which is what the DiSE affiliated school offers) alongside 3 A levels then she may as well get a qualification worth some additional UCAS points, as well as something to write in her PS.

However, I appreciate that you are saying your DS’s focus is on the practical race skills. Presumably this is a specialist institution that is focused on cycling skills?

Agree with this too. My very academic DD took it and really enjoyed at GCSE. Appreciate hard sometimes for our young people to push back against peer views.

Sorry to post yet again! The thing with the DiSE course is that you are nominated by your sports national governing body - in your case, British Cycling. So securing that nomination gives you a sense of where your child is at on the elite pathway (which sounds pretentious but which all sports governing bodies have and are hugely important in progressing to any kind of paid career).

Is he actually interested in the academic side of the course or does he just want to be able to ride his bike a lot?

Because if he just wants to ride his bike a lot then it might be better (and probably cheaper!) to just agree to fund a year out post A levels where he lives somewhere with really good trails and rides full time.

It was a suggestion for him to look at, it's not like I have dragged him out of his home and told him he must attend.

No. It’s the only sport choice anyone offers up though! It’s not as if everyone can get there.