Lack of level 2 courses

[Fearfulsaints]

Where I live the schools don't have sixth forms, they go to sixth form colleges. Some of the colleges have more vocational offers than others, but they seem to rapidly closing down access years for retakes, or the level 2 courses that used to lead to level 3 vocational courses.
I don't understand what local children are supposed to do if the aren't 4 gcses at grade 4 type students.

Is this just my area?

That sounds poor. I think we still have good choice round my area of Hants, but not looked recently (DD doing a level 2).

I’m also in Hants. We have a policy of sixth form colleges too. From what I understand there is still a good offering of options from vocational, retakes and A Levels.
My son went to a sixth form in Surrey just through logistics.

Don’t know but my area has multiple sixth forms plus two massive FE colleges and many students do BTECs or the colleges offer level 1s

Same here in West Kent. The course DD2 wanted to do the college just blithely said, after saying what a great candidate she was at interview, that they are not going to run this course locally. There are very few L1 or L2 courses and a lot of school sixth forms doing A-Levels only.

It's a very "academic" area with grammar schools which suited DD1 but does not suit DD2.

The Council will be turning around and wondering why there are so many NEETs in this cohort in a few months' time.

I agree. There will be lots of NEETs here too.

The big colleges are advertising level 1 or 2 courses but when you speak to them they are pulling them.

Or they have oddly high entrance criteria (eg a level 2 course worth 2 gcses needs 5 gcses to do it)

There is one College is still offering but you need to want to do a very limited range of courses, basically animal care or horticulture.

Or they have oddly high entrance criteria (eg a level 2 course worth 2 gcses needs 5 gcses to do it)

Exactly!

Do colleges have any discretion to allow students to joint Level 2 or Level 3 courses where they do not meet the criteria? DD2 might be in a situation where she might only pass her English and Maths.

AFAIK these are the only two you actually need so that you don't have to repeat them, but she still might not be able to join a L2 or L3 course because of the criteria, whilst being more than capable of doing the course.

She has applied for other courses but has not heard anything- I guess they just wait for results.

I don't know if there is discretion. I hope so. Fingers crossed for your daughter.

@Fearfulsaints 'Just animal care and horticulture', right up my DD's street!

When my son went, the students took level 3 and could retake English and Maths while doing this.

I teach at a sixth form college. We offer level 2, level 3 and A level courses. Level 2 students are for those who achieved mainly 2s and 3s in their GCSEs. Those students usually retake English or Maths, often both. The level 3 courses are for students who gained mainly 3s and 4s at GCSE. They would normally have at least English or Maths at a 4 or above. They retake the other one.
But each student is looked at on their individual merit when allocating courses, so there is a little bit of discretion.

Thanks, that's really helpful. 🙂

My son is hoping to do a level 3 BTEC at college but needs a 4 in both maths and English Language. He has a good chance of a 5 in Maths but English is borderline. If he doesn’t pass English he will have to do a level 2 course whilst resitting and the choice is limited. It’s going to be a nervous wait over the summer.