UCAS personal statement

[EatenTooMuchChocolateAgain]

If your Yr13 DC is 90% sure they don’t want to go to uni next year, (and are going to take a gap year or get an apprenticeship), are they still completing the ucas form and doing a personal statement?

At a parents meeting last year DS 6th form advised that students not planning to go to uni should still do a personal statement and get teacher references as they could be used in the future if they change their mind and go to uni at a later date.

Since then his teachers seem to be only focusing on the students who are definitely going to uni, making sure they’re getting on with their personal statements.

He’s going to try and clarify with his teachers whether he should be doing a personal statement (he has SEN so does misunderstand things at times).

Anyway, I wondered what others have done in this situation please?

He might as well complete his personal details and do the statement at the point that there is support for it and then it’s all done and set up if he changes his mind last minute.

Yes, he should definitely still be doing a personal statement and getting references if he is taking a gap year. He will need them a year later and it will be much more difficult to do without the support of the school, and with teachers having potentially moved on, or forgotten details about him.

If he is definitely never going to uni, he should be writing a CV and getting teachers to check that for him while everyone else is doing UCAS.

Yes still definitely do it and get those references. They probably have sessions at School where they can get support for their Personal statement so it would be daft to let those go to waste.

As others have said he might even change his mind.

Has he said what he does want to do if he doesn’t plan on going to Uni?

Apprenticeships are very hard to get, so keep that in mind. Our school said it's more competitive then medicine if you look at the number of applications vs places.

Absolutely should be doing the personal statement, theres lots of examples online and hints tips etc.. But yes school should be supporting all the 6th formers.

Ah I missed the bit about apprenticeship applications. Which ones has he looked at so far? Like a PP said, these are great but very hard to get. He’ll need to be really on it if he wants one of these.

Has he applied for any so far?

Is OP's YP talking about an apprenticeship or a degree apprenticeship? They're not the same thing, are they? The degree apprenticeships are hard to find. The apprenticeships not as much ime.

He might as well. One of my DD’s friends ended up going after a year because of a massive change in her family circumstances. She had had no intention of going before that.