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.

Placemarking.
One important thing to understand is this:

To get Distinction for a unit you need to meet every pass, merit and distinction criteria for all assignments in that unit. If you miss just one merit criteria you can't get more than a Pass for the unit.
Similarly to get Merit you have to hit every pass and every merit criteria.

I think you can resubmit if you don't meet all the passes, but I am not sure whether you can resubmit to get merit or distinction.

I also recommend finding the spec on the Pearson / C&G website and reading the marking criteria and how units make up overall grades.

My DS studied a BTEC extended diploma and has today got his final result of d star, d star, d. He passed every assignment and exam at distinction by 2 where he got 1 merit and 1 pass which is why he got the final d rather than d star. The college were great in giving the students the course tool which they could plug each assignment and module grade when they got them so they could work out what their overall grades were as they went along. He was only waiting on his final exam grade to find out what his final result was. For each assignment in the unit they were allowed 1 resubmission if they were on time with submission and within a few marks of the next grade boundary. There were multiple assignments in each unit unless an exam unit. DS had 3 exam units across the 2 years. Obviously, I can only speak for how it worked with the course that my DS took (Aeronautical engineering) but assume most BTEC extended diplomas will be similar. He is off to uni in September carrying on his studies in Aeronautical engineering.

Hi everyone. I’m following this as I came through the traditional A level route but DD announced during her GCSEs that she no longer wanted to do A levels and wants to do a level 3 BTEC in Sports Development and Coaching. I was a bit worried at first - not so much about it being a BTEC but it narrowing her options as she doesn’t know what she wants to do in the future, but there’s no point pushing her to do A levels if she doesn’t want to do them.

Hi 👋
Thank you for starting the thread, op.
Like some others, my dd decided (in July!) she no longer wanted to do A levels and has been accepted (pending gcse results) onto a Level 3 2 year btec at FE college.
I think this is probably the right decision for her...she's 17 in 3 weeks and is really "done" with school.
But I know nothing about them 😣

My DS did a L3 BTEC in sport and it was great for him so much better than traditional ALevels especially with less emphasis on final exams and a much more practical and vocational course content. Happy to answer any questions. My son also did an A level as his school only allowed FT attendance and encouraged so he would have sufficient UCAS points for uni.

Hi @myladygarden
How did your ds find the constant assessment/providing evidence of work ?
Dd is doing an arts course.

for my DS’s BTEC they did the more academic learning in Yr1 with exams at the end which counted for 40% and then 2nd year was practical and coursework for final 60%. The course introduced quite a few employment opportunities in sport including coaching, rehabilitation, performance analysis, psychology, national and charitable bodies and many of the topics are popular degree courses so you are getting a light touch introduction to these which I thought was great. There was a practical for which my DS did sports coaching which included 6 weeks of lesson planning, performance analysis and a few other things and then a written analysis of this (I think from memory!). His entire course was finished before A levels exams started so he was able to focus on the one he was doing without too much pressure or stress

@swampwitch0he did find it a big undertaking and isn’t brilliant at deadlines so there were a stressful few weeks and panicked late nights but I still think he performed better than he would have done doing 3 traditional a levels.

Evening all! I’ve hopped onto here from the Year 11 And Relax… thread.

I have DS18 who is on a gap year, and off to Edinburgh to do languages next month, after A Levels. My DS16 is waiting for his GCSE results next week and is ND and we are hoping he gets the 4 x Grade 4s necessary to do the Level 3 Public Services he has applied for.

I did two rounds of A Levels ( having bombed the first with U’s in Maths, Chemistry and Biology, of which I understood not a lot, obviously!), then Law, English Lang, Lit and Sociology in a year to get on to do an LLB. I have no knowledge at all of BTEC. My school was crap, had no Sixth Form, and my town had only two options.., the lovely Sixth Form, or the “rubbish Tech “ that did “ HND’s” in “useless subjects…. “…..apparently!! So! That is my only knowledge! Suffice to say, I need help to help my DS, going forward and hope we can help each other, please!!

🙏 @BTECnewbiefor setting this up!

Good Luck to us all for next week!!!

Hello, I'd like to join!

My DS also changed his mind at the last minute & said at the end of July that he wouldn't go back to his school 6th form for A levels as planned. We had a bit of a nerve-wracking week finding something he wanted to do instead, but now he's planning on doing a UAL level 3 extended diploma in photography.

I'm slightly worried he picked it as the 'least bad' option, but he was so stressed by GCSEs that he really couldn't face more exams.

@Sisublondie
My school sounds very similar!
Dd is going down a create path - which suits her.
Locally to me lots of FE colleges and 6th forms have cut their subject offer. Fewer subjects but also lower entry requirements (?)

Thank you for starting this thread - imagine it’s going to become a bit of a lifeline in the coming months!

Another thing my dyspraxic elder DD really struggled with was level of detail. (This was very much a 'her' problem, but possibly may impact others).

The cirteria often asked for list or describe or explain or analyse. Each of those keywords was key and it was important to know what they expected.

I'm on a bit of a roll here.
The first 2-3 weeks seemed quite easy/light as they had to learn stuff before the assignments started, but then at times both my DDs felt a bit overwhelmed by organising priority of work against multiple ongoing assignments and needed some assistance in organisation. Since every assignment counts you can't/shouldn't hand in a scrappy bit of 'homework' (because isn't homework) just to get it out of the way.

Can I join you too! Thanks @BTECnewbie im so pleased you set this up. Fingers and toes crossed, my DS is taking a double Sport BTEC alongside an A Level and Core Maths.

I’m a little concerned as his coursework for PE GCSE was a real challenge - it all seemed a bit chaotic on the school side and he ended up doing assessed practicals in two sports he doesn’t play regularly. 🧐 The written work was v dull and formulaic, with lots of repetition of paragraphs relating to different skills. There aren’t many materials online apart from the published board materials. So, I’m v keen to get to grips with it to help set up the right structure at the beginning.

On the upside, if we can work out what’s needed when, it will be much easier. Interesting about the keywords. Maybe a tick off list for each assignment? He’s good at spreadsheets, so I may encourage him to make a criteria check list too….

I'm so impressed at the breadth of BTECs your DC are doing. Can really see the attraction after GCSE. 💪🏽

This is what worries me as DD can be scatty and would chuck in crap homework for some subjects to box tick. I am hoping that because it’s one subject that she’s passionate about she’ll view it differently but I can see I am going to have to help her keep tabs on her workload.

@GrumpyMuleFan he could make his own spreadsheet for grade tracking. As grades for units come in her could see his maximum grade coming down and his minimum overall grade going up. It sounds from @cassgate that there are tools for this nowadays, but doing his own might be more fun.

Youngest has just completed BTEC Level 3 Extended in Sport and got DDM across the course.

He’s loved the course and it’s got him into his first choice Uni to do a BEd pretty sure it’s the Physical Education - Secondary Ed (with QTS).

He’s loved the practical side of the course and being a qualified football ref has been very useful to the college.

I did the old BTEC OND route to university back in the very late 80s and never found it a hindrance to get to University after being told it was “the poor man’s A Levels” and it would limit me in getting in.

I assume I could find the spec for the btec?
I'm not sure of the exam board yet...

Yes.

Actual BTECs are Pearson (I think all they are the only ones I have heard of anyway). There are also City&Guilds, and Cambridge Nationals I think.

And T-Levels.

BTEC Nationals | Pearson qualifications

My DS did a T level, which sound and in a lot of ways was great, however the college gave absolutely zero help in getting a placement which made it extremely stressful. He did pass though so there's that!!

I have a nearly starting year 11 DS who wants to go to Uni to do Paramedic Science but is unlikely to excel at A levels. We are a bit isolated so not a huge choice of colleges and the only relevant course he can get to is T Level Health Social Care. I would have preferred he did a level 3 Diploma but it would mean a lot of travel.

Does anyone know how T levels compare to BTECs and do Uni's like them?

It will be interesting to see how my DS gets on with coursework. He hasn’t enjoyed revising for exams but he is incredibly disorganised so I think will struggle with juggling multiple assignments. He’s going to have to find a way to get a bit more organised.

He wants to do a very niche BTEC in aviation operations. It’s something he’s really interested in but I’m slightly concerned about narrowing his options so much at 16. His school have been really poor though and he is just desperate to leave and do something else.

I wouldn't worry too much about narrowing his options. It's better they do something they enjoy. There is plenty of ways to change path as they get older.