Year 11 says GCSEs ‘don’t matter’ but wants to go into Banking, how can I inspire him?

[bobtheveryoldBuilder]

As everyone here has managed to get their bright children to be engaged with the progress I wonder if you had some tips?

DS is clever but dyslexic. He finds book learning hard.
He knows that he has to get good A level results and is doing math, Econ and Com Sci
But he seems to have decided GCSEs are not important.

Any good website or videos or resources I can direct him to?
Where do I start with internship info?

Used to be that floor traders all arrived after A-levels. Are they all graduates nowadays?

Have been since the early 90s, not just grads, but post grad.

Can he look into an apprenticeship?

A colleague did one with Barclays.

Ask the friend in investment baking to show him around the office one day and then explain the entry requirements. That will make it very real

It looks like Santander still does them with different starting points.

www.santander.com/en/careers/uk-careers/emerging-talent/apprenticeship-programmes

Not sure if the link will work.

Start with the requirements for the next stage of study. My son is at a state Sixth Form and there are requirements to retake English and maths if you don't pass and many subjects have a minimum grade requirement. Show him the grades required for grammar Sixth form if that's an option in our area.

Does he want to go to a top uni? show him the entry requirements for say LSE or a graduate scheme place. I am bilingual and went to LSE and was rejected by many schemes. If he's watched the Wolf of Wall Street and thinks that he can blag it then he's wrong. The best schemes have people from around the world applying so competition is tough.

Depending on the grades of his other GCSEs he is likely to have a spiky profile, ie some very high grades and possibly 5s or 6s. How that can be read is academically able but only puts effort into some subjects, not all subjects. Does he want to look like this against other applicants who have 8s and 9s? They are both classed as A⃰ s. Anything that allows his university application to be competitive helps.

From London School of Economics for their BSc in Finance and Accounting

"GCSEs - A strong set of GCSE grades including the majority at A (or 7) and A* (or 8-9)

GCSE English Language and Mathematics grades should be no lower than B (or 6) We also consider your overall GCSE subject profile"

So yes all his GCSEs are important. It forms part of the profile for university applications.

GCSEs only don’t matter after you’ve got the best results you can in order to move on to your next phase of education or training. He won’t want to be unable to do this due to not having a good set of results. A chat with a careers advisor might help him?

@ShoeTheDoor if the child is dyslexic, he is likely to have a spiky profile anyway.
I got distinction at MSc, a first in my BSc, 3 A and 2 B at A level (in the days when you took 3A levels). But my GCSE's range from A* to C.

@StillNotWarm I read it as the OP saying he is clever and bright but finds book learning hard and is unwilling to put in the effort that his Mum thinks he is capable of and using the GCSEs don't matter to argue his case. His Mum knows him best and wants him to engage with his GCSEs especially considering he is in year 11 which is a crucial year for them.

Sadly these days the sheer number of applicants for university places means it is very competitive. When I went to uni in the early 90s I believe only around 19% of people went, now it is 50%. Far more competition for the top universities.

@ShoeTheDoor she also states he's dyslexic.

thanks all. Yes he's gonna have a spikey profile, I love I know what it's called now.

I sent him some YouTube links on what an internship is, not sure if he's watched them but suddenly he's revising on the kitchen table (a bit). I've also chilled out about YouTube revision. It's all good !

& I will mail the careers person at the school, she seems good.

The 'friend's is me, I fell into IB back in the days when you could easily join round the edges, I get paid a whack for what I do, but not £££ but don't work very hard. So he has a skewed view of getting into Finance / banking.

Will concentrate on sharing uni course requirements. Does anyone do a paper brochure anymore?

I'd use various recruitment materials from the banks on what's needed from the candidates to hopefully explain that yes, go for banking but you will need x qualifications and x experience ect,

Offer the end result first with a map of what's needed for him to achieve the goals.

@bobtheveryoldBuilder

@bobtheveryoldBuilder I believe most of it is online purely down to the costs of producing said brochures and mailing them out. Dc certainly didn't appear to ever see one. All research was online, easy to google best university for X then click through the link or look it up independently. There are lots of combinations with finance so it would depend what appeals to him. I think it is good to look at entry grades before they even start their A levels. Entry grades are just that though, the lowest most top universities will accept. LSE is A⃰ AA for finance but will have a high proportion of applicants with A⃰ predictions across the board or grades in hand than A⃰ AA students. Obviously it is one of the best universities in the country but I say aim high.

I am not meaning to be obtuse or argumentative but I am curious @StillNotWarm - why only a possible spiky GCSE profile for children with dyslexia? Why not a spiky A level profile or degree modules? My own child has a processing disorder so we worked with school for that for his GCSEs.

My DD's high school are running events aimed at options post 16. Something like this might be helpful? See perhaps if there's anything similar happening near you.
Looking at entry requirements for the next stage might help him realise that maths alone won't get you far.

It's not a given, @ShoeTheDoor.
But reading the OP, he sounds very similar to a teenage me.
(Very) Bright, but the organization, spelling, time management side of dyslexia doesn't lend its self well to scoring well in English, MFL (or history, which I dropped).
Give me (Biology) Physics, Chemistry, Maths - I fly. Get me to write an essay, and I get a page of red corrections. I was classed as slow in primary school - low marks in spelling tests, couldn't remember my times tables (I still use my fingers), couldn't colour within the lines.
As I got to drop subjects that didn't suit me, I "got cleverer". Well, I didn't, I got to drop stuff at the bottom of my personal spiky profile, and improved on average, from slow to above average.

@StillNotWarm thanks, that makes sense. I was genuinely interested. "slow in primary" and to "above average" I would hardly call your achievements above average, you have excelled. Hopefully it gives hope to others who are labelled this way that playing to your strengths can lead to great outcomes.

@StillNotWarm @ShoeTheDoor

yes it's exactly that, it's keeping him on target so he doesn't blow his chances before he knows what's out there.

and how to inspire when a) I'm him mum so if I go on about it he will just stop listening and b) I am busy with own job and c) the LDs come from me so I find this stuff triggering and hard to get my head around.

@bobtheveryoldBuilder I think the fact that you are looking ahead for him shows how much you care. I also think that is something he needs to hear from you. That as his parent no one in the world wants more or better for him or cares as much about him than you do (and his Dad hopefully). I have told my children that I would walk through fire to get to them to emphasise how important they are to me. As a little jokey humour and I also told them how I watched shit tv shows with them because they loved it, listened to them prattle on about computer games they play and love because it is important to them. That they are going to really dislike me during year 11 as I will be on them about revision. That being a parent isn't about always making your child happy which is why ice cream for breakfast is an occasional treat and not something done daily.

With mine I said you work hard now and in summer you get 10 weeks off, no demands on your time. You do not want to spend half of it worrying about whether you should have done more. Feed him cake whilst you tell him all of this, it helps.

Both of mine have gone through GCSEs and we are out the other side. You are doing your best, sadly you can't do it for him, only support him.

A friend of my DC has just started an apprenticeship in Investment Banking straight from school with a major household name in London. They had mostly 8/9s at GCSE and A star, A star, A at A level, were super organised Deputy Head of School and delightful. Despite these grades and coming from a state school they only had one offer for Economics at Uni and so decided to go down the apprenticeship route - also v competitive - applied for many - ended up with 3 offers.

It's a competitive world in this sector.