What degree could DD do?

[year12clueless]

DD is floundering trying to choose a degree. She's coming to the end of year 12. Current predicted grades are
PE-A
Sociology-B
Geography- B
Highly possible that she'll do well enough in her tracking tests next term to move one or both of the predicted Bs to As but I don't want her massively pressured as she's had a difficult few years.

She's got 9 GCSES grades 8-5 including a 5 in maths.

She's not traditionally academic and doesn't love any of her subjects. She likes sports science but most universities seem to offer it as a BSc and want biology or chemistry A level so that's not an option.

I think she'd be better off looking at a more vocational course like marketing or communications etc but these seem to be offered at the newer universities and I worry she's selling herself short because the grade requirements are sometimes a lot lower than she'll probably get.

As she's not doing a STEM subject I really think that if she's paying all that money she should at least go to somewhere with a reasonable reputation as that will potentially be something future employers consider. There seems to be a big unfilled gap between "we want A star, A,A" and "B,C,C".

She's sporty, cheerful, organised, personable and well liked. As a job I can see her doing well in a sales/ marketing/ comms/ PR type job- but where to go next? We've looked at degree apprenticeships and they seem to be in stem/ finance, and the sales and barbering ones seem to be thinly disguised advertising sales.

We're both glazing over looking at Unifrog again. Does the MN hive mind have any suggestions?

Anthropology? There's some crossover with sociology and human geog. This article has some interesting info about potential careers for anthropology graduates, apparently they are quite sought after. (You can do anthropology without archaeology if that bit doesn't appeal.)

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/07/university-subject-profile-anthropology-and-archaeology

Lots of academic degrees have lots of reading! Why is that a negative??

She could look at apprenticeships with the Civil Service. HMRC is currently recruiting 18 people for a Level 4 policy apprenticeship. In London they start on just under 32K, national salary 27.5K plus. Need 5 good passes at GCSE and 2 A Levels at D plus.

Problem is that even getting an interview these days without a degree is near impossible

Geography! Really wide scope of modules in most courses(after first year compulsory aspects) and Geog grads really sought after in a wide variety of professions

I am a former Russell Group admissions tutor and the RG is definitely within reach. But it isn’t the main consideration, IMO. Aside from obvious examples like L’borough Sports Science, many post 1992 unis have excellent ties to industry and strong placement records in particular areas.

Many do need to pick an area for study and later, separately, a job. But your description of your DD makes me wonder if seeing the value to a job that enthused her might help motivate her study? If that is true, what might she want to do? Not in detail and not forever, but to start with?