What are the prospects with BTECs rather than A levels

[ActuallyComfortable]

Looking at options for my youngest, who is very bright and switched on about some things (really in touch with and articulate about current affairs and world politics which is not especially common at 15) yet academically a very mixed bag, and has some dyslexic traits (perfect grammar but terrible spelling, used to struggle with the physical fine motor skills of writing and find it painful because of gripping the pencil so hard leading to arm pain and had OT for that as a young child). His grades tend to be absolutely all over the place - moments of brilliance mixed with unexpected crashing and burning when he thought things went well...

BTECs are appealing because there are no exams, all course work, so the possibility of more course correction when going wildly off piste, and the risk factor of exams removed

I know what schools claim you can do with BTECs but that's largely meaningless.

Does anyone have relatively recent experience of what their own or a child well known to them did after completing BTECs?

I don't want to send him on a two year route to being no better off than he was before in terms of prospects for further study and employment he can make a living from!

It’s good to hear of young people with BTECs doing PhDs but what are they planning to do afterwards for work? I’d really like to hear about that.

Two of my children did a business BTEC and achieved the highest grade possible.
My daughter is now an AVP at an American Bank and my son an underwriter for an insurance company. Both are settled into jobs they enjoy and earning a good wage.
Both chose the BTEC route as they were no good at exams. One of them did have a place at university but eventually chose to go straight into the workplace.

She's already employed. University lecturer. She didn't fancy working in the fashion industry anymore after doing that through her earlier degrees, so is working on developing PPE for specific high risk industries.

Very interesting thank you!

Just to clarify, BTEC is an umbrella term. Level 2 BTEC is GCSE equivalent whereas level 3 is A level equivalent. There are level 4 and 5 too which are undergraduate levels.
Then there is the size of the qualification. A level 3 certificate is equivalent to an AS in one level 3 subject, an extended certificate is a full A level equivalent. These are usually offered by schools alongside A level or other Btecs. A diploma is the first year equivalent of 3 A levels and the extended diploma is equivalent to 3 full A levels which is what is needed for Btecs alone for UCAS entry.

T levels only exist in England and have been rolled out to replace L3 Extended Diplomas in some subject areas with varying success due to government defunding the original BTEC.

Btecs are usually brilliant especially for students who are organised, have great attendance and able to work consistently well across the 2 years.

Thank you, this is very useful.

So we really need to know what we're looking at.

It all seems to be in flux by the sound of it, which puts what generally seems to be a positive option into a less attractive light.

As far as the personal characteristics:

We've never had any attendance issues (though we all know anything can change with teenagers, but I hope not and don't expect it).

Being very organised is up for debate - I'm not sure he's vastly more organised than same age peers, in fact forgotten homework and lost bus passes definitely feature more than they did for his older siblings (though I'm beginning to suspect it was more that qe had it remarkably easy with the older ones...).

He generally has things like presentations done on time and is often the one in a group who gets the best mark in a group presentation because he has everything with him and often drives group work and comes across quite well in oral presentations compared to written work (on the other hand his school/ class specific friends seem flakier than his outside school friends and his siblings' friends...).

I'm not sure.

Thank you, this is very useful.

So we really need to know what we're looking at.

It all seems to be in flux by the sound of it, which puts what generally seems to be a positive option into a less attractive light.

As far as the personal characteristics:

We've never had any attendance issues (though we all know anything can change with teenagers, but I hope not and don't expect it).

Being very organised is up for debate - I'm not sure he's vastly more organised than same age peers, in fact forgotten homework and lost bus passes definitely feature more than they did for his older siblings (though I'm beginning to suspect it was more that qe had it remarkably easy with the older ones...).

He generally has things like presentations done on time and is often the one in a group who gets the best mark in a group presentation because he has everything with him and often drives group work and comes across quite well in oral presentations compared to written work (on the other hand his school/ class specific friends seem flakier than his outside school friends and his siblings' friends...).

I'm not sure.