BTECs and university

[bendmeoverbackwards]

My youngest dd is currently in Year 10. She has had some problems recently - she's on the autistic spectrum and her school attendance has been erratic since before Christmas. She's very bright and capable of getting very good grades but with all this missed school her grades have been dropping.

She also doesn't seem to be that interested in schoolwork, none of her subjects really jump out at her. Looking ahead to next year, I want to consider options other than A Levels.

She is a very keen dancer although probably not good enough for an auditioned course. However some local colleges off a BTEC in Performing Arts and this might suit her.

I've heard you can get into decent universities with a BTEC. She might not want to to go university but I just want her to keep her options open.

You said the Birmingham offer was someone with a L2 Btec. There is no way any university is going to accept a Medicine applicant with just a L3 Extended Diploma.

For Music (I know about music as that was the subject ds was looking at) Birmingham will accept a L3 Btec as long as they ALSO have an A level in the required subject.

For medicine Birmingham require 3 A levels or International Baccalareate. They do not accept Btecs. They do accept a Btec for Medical Biochemistry but again ONLY if an A level is also taken and only if certain science Btec modules are studied.

But the OP is not asking about L2 Btecs. She is asking about options her child will have with a L3 Extended Diploma (which are numerous but will exclude certain institutions/courses).

Am I the only one who could well imagine how sports science might come up in a medicine interview, for example if you were asked what sort of areas you might be interested in, you might say preventative health or treating injured sportspeople.

My ds did 3 A levels and a Level 3 certificate in Sporting Excellence - 4 out of 5 universities gave him offers based on A levels alone, the 5th (Hull) gave an offer of UCAS points so he could have used the certificate if his A level grades had been lower than required.

In relation to T levels, there is a list here: www.tlevels.gov.uk/students/subjects including this one, although it's not quite what your dd might be looking for: www.tlevels.gov.uk/students/subjects/media-broadcast-production

@bendmeoverbackwards maybe a red herring but could your DD perhaps be interested in a physiotherapy degree course down the line? A family friend's DC has just started a degree after two A levels alongside a BTEC L3 for entry I believe. The DC is loving their course and it is a great mix of vocational/theory. I have a physio friend who has travelled the world with ballet/dance companies on tour and she says it can be pressurised but so interesting and hugely rewarding. She loves the arts and engineered her career in this specific direction.

Interesting @opoponax thank you and also thank you to everyone for all the information. At this stage she has no idea what she wants to do and quite honestly, at the moment she really struggles with talking to people. She will need to take everything slowly and not plan ahead too much. She's worrying so much about GCSEs especially with all the missed school, it would be nice to have a back up plan in case she doesn't get the grades for A Levels (or decide not to do A Levels).

I have spoken to my local college that offers this Level 3 Performing Arts BTEC, they were very nice and helpful and said there are no plans to stop running the course. They suggested she comes to one of their open days.

I was a bit snobby about BTEC but I think that quite a lot do get a bit fed up of A levels straight after GCSE.

Lots of DS friends found them a bit boring after doing 9 or so GCSE’s. There’s also the travel to college and especially meeting new people (ofwhich can suck their commitment to turning up. Perhaps if staying on at a school 6th form or boarding it’s not such an issue maybe.

For those with straight academic pathways I guess it’s necessary but some excellent Unis accept them if they work out that’s what they want to do.

@bendmeoverbackwards

Interesting *@opoponax* thank you and also thank you to everyone for all the information. At this stage she has no idea what she wants to do and quite honestly, at the moment she really struggles with talking to people. She will need to take everything slowly and not plan ahead too much. She's worrying so much about GCSEs especially with all the missed school, it would be nice to have a back up plan in case she doesn't get the grades for A Levels (or decide not to do A Levels).

I have spoken to my local college that offers this Level 3 Performing Arts BTEC, they were very nice and helpful and said there are no plans to stop running the course. They suggested she comes to one of their open days.

There are different qualifications within the 'level 3' BTEC term. qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/btec-international-level-3.html

My DD is in the second year of an extended diploma in musical theatre, UAL rather than BTec but a very similar structure.

She has 4 offers for BA's, musical theatre from Bath Spa, Wolverhampton and Blackpool, as well as musical theatre and film studies from Chichester, she's also awaiting results of an audition for an HND which she plans to be her backup.

All the offers are conditional on gaining a minimum of a merit. She is definitely a middle of the road performer, though she does do additional classes to learn technique.

She didn't have spectacular GCSE's in part due to additional learning needs (dyslexia and dyspraxia) she also did a level 2 BTec after GCSEs to improve her performance skills, though she had good enough grades to get into the level 3, the extra year has helped a lot with maturing.

DD is doing 3 a levels and a btec in dance which is equivalent to an a level. Of the 5 universities she applied to, only one acknowledged and used the btec in her offer. This is for a non performing arts degree.

My son is doing an Extended BTec in Engineering together with 2 A Level equivalents in Maths and Physics. He got offers from all the universities he applied to this year and his classmate got through to the interview stage at Cambridge.