apprenticeship vs college

[Fifi04]

Hi,
My son has GCSEs in May. He should pass 4-5 of them and he wants to go to college to become an electrician. I encourage him to try apprenticeship. Am I doing it right? earlier he wanted apprenticeship and now he changed his mind. On the Internet there are general differences that are known to everyone, but I still don't know what is better for him? It seems that he may not be the best student ;-) but he is in group 3 out of 8, so he is above average and has a chance of passing a few GCSEs. He is also conscientious and tries his best, but as a boy he is hyperactive. I'm simply asking for help because I don't understand, for example, why everyone praises apprenticeship if the child only goes to school one day a week? After all, this is no education! and at a college where I think you can get into it without GCSE, the child is at school 4 or 5 days a week! So it seems that college is better for education after all! Can a child continue his/her education after college and what level does he/she reach? On the other hand, if you want to earn £5/hour on appreticeship, maybe it's better to go to college to get qualifications and then pay for your education yourself?
Regards

Dd is 6 months into an apprenticeship. She had to get 5 gcses 4 or above to get it. She learns on the job but has to go away to college for 4 days every 6 or 7 weeks. She gets 4 hours a week to do remote learning as well.
She's not a fan of school/ college and prefers hands on but apprenticeships are not there for less able school/hating kids.

of course, learning a profession is education, but for me it is more of a practice, and education is learning at school ;-)

of course, learning a profession is education, but for me it is more of a practice, and education is learning at school. You can call training education, but it's still training

@Fifi04 no it's learning how to do a job/trade that you want to do - whether that's school, college or apprenticeship.
It's all a form of education.

No, training is learning. By training you are learning knowledge/skills/behaviours to be able to do a task/job

There is still theory to be learned when doing an apprenticeship (or vocational course at college). it isn't just how to do things it is why so they can go ahead and apply that background information to new situations.

Apprenticeships can be hard to get and I think require more of a young person than 'just' a college course.

if my son has 55% - sorry but I don't know these names - he is above the national average in education in general, my question is what about the children below? If out of 210 children he is placed in places 60-90 and you write that he is not suitable anywhere, what about children from 91 to 210?

I don't even want to answer ;-))

OK then don't 🤷‍♀️

DH is part of a panal that selects electical apprentices from 16+. He doesnt necessary go for the applicant with the best results, he looks at attitude and will give them a task so he can see how they work with tools ie are they organised etc.
They still have to go to college one day a week , need maths and english gcses and pass their exams and they are not guaranteed a job at the end if they dont show a good attitude and initiative while they are doing their apprenticeship.

I work with apprentices. Apprenticeships are not an easy option, the standard is high and there is competition.

As an apprentice you are an employed person, all the usual rules apply. This is sometimes a shock to the system for those straight from school. They must show up on time, be polite to people, meet deadlines etc. Doing their qualification is part of their job. They can't sack it off for the afternoon because they can't be arsed, just like I can't.

For the right person an apprenticeship is an amazing opportunity that sets them up very well, they get cracking immediately with learning skills required. Rather than 2 years at college first then start learning it. But if he wants one he needs to up his game.

@Fifi04 the children below that level will either (as I said above) spend time re doing some GCSEs at either a college or school.
Some won't and will just fall out from the system and either end up unemployed.
Some will get jobs that really don't care if you have GCSE History or whatever.
Colleges will offer course from Level 1 (GCSE grades 1-3) and functional skills all the way up to (sometimes) degree level.
If your son fails to get the grades he needs to do the electrical course or apprenticeship (so grade 3 or less) he could go to college and retake GCSE (usually English and Maths) and do a level 2 (GCSE equivalent) electrician course at the same time.
That would be for 1 year.
He can then move up to the next level after.

if my son has 55% - sorry but I don't know these names - he is above the national average in education in general, my question is what about the children below? If out of 210 children he is placed in places 60-90 and you write that he is not suitable anywhere, what about children from 91 to 210?

@Fifi04 55% won't mean that, but if you don't elaborate on context noone can help. Kids who fail to get English and/or Maths gcse will resit those or until achieving a level 2 Functional Skills in numeracy and literacy which are equivalent and take lower level vocational courses alongside. These may be Entry level upwards to start with which are below gcse level. Once the minimum qualifications are achieved they may progress onto level2/3 until they turn 19. If they have additional needs there are often specific non qualification courses at college (Supported Learning) which have embedded maths and English skills within activities such as cookery or crafts.

Apprenticeships are education. I started out my career in an apprenticeship and from there sat professional qualifications afterwards. I'm just as educated in my profession as someone that went down the 6th form/university route, I just chose to earn throughout my years of learning rather than rack up a huge sum of student debt. What I will say is that on the job learning can be invaluable and by the time I qualified in my profession I had an extra 5 years of experience over the university educated student. Things I was taught to do as I worked my way up the career ladder my peers didn't have a clue how to do and that did give me a huge technical advantage early on.

The company I work for has electrical apprentices. They can follow 2 different paths. Some will join us straight from school and do day release to college once a week. Others will join us having spent two years at college doing their L2 and 3, but needing to do their portfolios.

I think my dd will go down the apprenticeship route which I'm sure her father will be happy with as he can stop paying maintenance.

he will probably only fail in Spanish because he doesn't care at all. The remaining 5 should pass between 4 and 7.

See, I wrote that my son has 55% of the national average, or something like that, which surprisingly corresponds to his grades (average) at GCSE ;-) He chose (or had to) 6 subjects. He gave up Spanish and has 4 to 7 of the remaining ones - if you add them and divide by 6, you will get an average of 5.5 - such a correlation with 55% ;-) You wrote earlier that it's not much (I'm not saying it's not), that's why I asked - if out of 210 kids he is placed between 60-90 so what about the remaining 120 kids and who goes to college then?

Why is he only taking 6 though? English language and literature , maths, double science + Spanish, is that really it? Schools aim for 8 minimum unless there are additional needs.

I'm not sure you understand the 55%. That is not 5.5 grade average, no schools work that way. Taking 6 is below average.

Have you finished your education - what level of your career are you now?

But 5.5 doesn't correlate with 55% because the grades are only 1-9, they don't go up to 10.
It would have made more sense if you had explained your working out at the start.
Also schools don't give 1 average score across all subjects, they give an individual expected grade for each subject.

taking 6 of what?;-)

6 subjects, what sort of school is it?

6 subjects.
Most schools require 8-10 GCSEs. To only do 6 GCSEs is unusual.

My children only require 6 subjects at school. Some colleges require passing 4 subjects with an average of at least 5