BTEC/T level/other vocational 25/26

[BTECnewbie]

Hello all. My DS will hopefully be starting a level 3 extended diploma in September (assuming he gets the grades). I know very little about BTECs having come through the A level route myself. So I’d love to have a support thread for parents of kids taking vocational qualifications this year.

Just popping in to say we are a BTEC family.

One studied BTEC instead of A levels in the 80s, the other two 10 years ago.

We have a Chartered Accountant, an Estate Letting Agent and a Software Developer.

Skills needed to pull off top grades - consistent work ethic right from the word go, good organisation, and a passion and genuine curiosity for the subject as they are quite focused.

Many of my son's friends that had pulled off slightly better GCSEs than him - mainly Bs not Cs like he did - they foundered at A level and joined his course a year later.

Good luck Bteccers!

IT/Computing BTEC here, good grades in his GCSEs just wanted to leave school.
I'm here for a bit of strategy to help (but in a hands off kind of way) keep him on track.

Dd very similar.. 17 soon
Just done with school

Thank you. That should be great. I’ve had a quick look at the spec on my phone but will download it to my laptop, as well as buying the books. Just so happy she got what she needed today - will start on the practical side next week.

dD also got all she needed (and a 6 in the English! What the hell happened there?)
So will be starting a T Level Animal Management in September. Look forward to sharing experiences @SuperTrooper1111 and @TeenToTwenties .
Cats are her main thing but anything furry and feathery is welcome. They have a fantastic collection at the college she’s joining 😀

Dd's college has Zebu, Red Panda, & Lemurs. Her favourite lesson was 'walking the dogs'.

TeenToTwenties thanks for the advice about the option to 'start again' in Y12. I hadn't thought about that.

I think sixth form is the best place for ds at the moment - he needs to resit maths - but I'll encourage him to go to some open evenings at local colleges to consider an extended BTech for Y13/14.

Hopefully, he will mature somewhat in the coming year.

Regarding possible ND... Is there any benefit in pursuing a diagnosis? He already gets extra time in exams and the option to use a laptop which he doesn't make use of.

@Anxiousthoughts
(Just checking. You do know colleges provide resits too don't you?)

I don't know whether a diagnosis would help. My DDs did find diagnoses of dyspraxia (DD1) and dyslexia & dyspaxia & other stuff (DD2) helped, as it gave them the words to explain things to other people. Somehow it is easier to say 'I have dyspraxia which means that I can't balance things' rather than simply 'I can't balance things' iyswim.

I would trust them. Like they’ve said it’s valuable experience.

TeenToTwenties yep I know that college do resits. I sort of feel that it's too late for this year - neither of us had engaged with him going anywhere else but his sixth form.

Hopefully, if he can pass maths this year and get a sense of whether he's interested in media, he might be in a better position to have a plan for next September.

I will get him to go to some open days this autumn though. We didn't do that last year as he was dead set on sixth form and the whole process of that had been so stressful with dd the year before, I was glad not to. Possibly a mistake on my part, but it's done now.

@Sallycinnamum
Agree with @MamaElephantMama

@MamaElephantMama and @swampwitch0 yes I think you're probably right.

Now I've had a chance to sleep on it i think this is probably the best for him.

Well we've had a rollercoaster morning! Turned up to DD's college enrolment appointment only to be told she couldn't start her Level 3 BTech in Animal Care because she only got 3s in her science – despite her conditional offer clearly stating she only needed to pass English and/or maths. I'd actually printed out the offer as back-up in case my phone died, so when they saw the wording they apologised profusely and said it should never have been sent out like that but unfortunately DD definitely needed a 4 in science for Level 3. You can imagine my reaction! The options she was given were a) do Level 2 for a year, which would be the equivalent of four GCSEs including an animal biology module, then move up to Level 3 Foundation for two years, or b) start a Level 3 Extended BTech now which is the equivalent of 2 A-levels. DD has opted for a) because boosting her GCSE results can only be a good thing for future job prospects, plus only having UCAS points for 2 A-levels could rule out uni. Having talked it through with the tutor I am now convinced the extra year will do her good – DD is an August baby and has always been behind her peers so an extra bridging year which means she'll leave college at 18 rather than 17. Her dad needed more convincing, but ultimately he just wants her to be happy. So not the outcome we expected when we rocked up this morning but a good one nonetheless!

Hope everyone else's DC are doing okay today.

Sorry, just seen your post @Sallycinnamum – sounds like your DS is in same position as my DD. I do think if the college believe he should start at Level 2 it's probably for best.

@SuperTrooper1111 Sorry to hear about the rollercoaster. I'm not surprised they wanted the GCSE in science though.

DD's college asks for Five GCSEs at Grade 4 or above to include Maths, English and Science or Level 2 qualification in Animal Care with Biology and Health units at distinction level and Maths and English GCSEs at grade 4 or above.

The year first at Level 2 could really help. She will get all the basics under her belt and learn what is needed to do well in BTECs/T-Levels and then really hit the ground running next year.

@SuperTrooper1111
I totally agree the level 2 is the best bet for your dd, but that error is disgraceful!

@TeenToTwenties We were surprised when the offer came through but DD did have a brilliant interview so we assumed – silly of us, really – it was off the back of that. Having read up now on what the Level 2 involves I'm even more convinced it's the best option to ease her in after the trauma of GCSEs. The college was brilliant today about already sorting out access arrangements for her assessments.

L3 Extended BTEC should be 3 A level equivalent.

Dd was accepted for her course assuming 4 x 5s.
She smashed that 👏 so she had her place.
But her enrolment is next week which is good in a way, as she has 2 days of work before then! :)
I so hope it goes ok...dd has had such a dreadful year so far 🤞

@SuperTrooper1111 poor DD and you! It may be the best thing for her as you say, but how blinking disorganised and what a let down. Hope she is OK about it now.

She's really happy with the plan now. And in some ways it was better than we didn't know yesterday when she got her results.

@SuperTrooper1111 absolutely same situation for us, which makes me wonder who they actually have on the level 3 course.

However, the way the course director positioned it to us was potentially DS will get three years of free study and I don't want him struggling on a course he's not adequately equipped for.

He also said, if DS finds the level 2 too easy he can move to a level 3 earlier so that is another option.

I was reading this morning that funding from government to colleges had some changes that may have impacted the requirement for 4 GCSE’s Inc Science but glad your DD @SuperTrooper1111 has a path forward.

We are home educating our 14yrDD so I joined the thread to understand more what we need to do to keep her options open as I’ve heard that some of the home Ed kids had offers pulled due to the same issue with 4-5 GCSE’s at certain grade levels. We are trying to help her get 4-5 gcses plus 2 equivalent qualifications over the next 2-3yrs but she’s autistic & adhd with adjustments in place and late Aug birthday. A Btec would be ideal for her after watching her sister struggle through Alevels this year. Previously the local college had more flexibility for kids like her with a strong portfolio of work but now I’m hearing the rules are tougher sadly. She’s very intelligent just struggles with exams.

My DS is now successfully enrolled on his BTEC. He has 4-6s across all subjects (except English Literature) and they enrolled him straight on the level 3 with no suggestion of doing the level 2. Perhaps it depends on the subject though, with more practical subjects benefiting from the level 2 first.

I think it is the right course for DS but I think he will need a bit of support to begin with as he has never done any continuous assessment based courses before and he is totally disorganised. He was advised when he enrolled that he needed to stay on top of everything and do assignments as soon as he got them to avoid falling behind. He is nearly 17 but immature in some ways so I did wonder if he would benefit from a level 2 first but he is happy to get started on level 3. We shall see how it goes….

On a positive note, he is so excited about starting this course after a fairly miserable time at high school. It’s lovely to see him enthusiastic about it. He wishes he could get started next week!