Thread 52 - Covid GCSE Cohort - Autumn 24 - Start of Uni Yr 3

[Oblomov24]

2024 Autumn, start of year 3 for those at Uni.

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp.

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.

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@crazycrofter Oh that is such wonderful news! that does sound unusual doesn't it? it's usually 3 points and 100 as you said. Divine intervention is at work on her behalf!!!

@Oblomov24 & @Decorhate So pleased to hear your dc are enjoying their placements. Went up to visit DS yesterday and balsted his room with the brand new steam cleaner (never used one before) very impressed by how easy it was to put together and get it working, because I'm terrible at assembling and just reading instructions. Anyway didn't see any bed bugs but treated every nook and crany.
DS is complaining the room is too small and he has to go into the office 5 days a week because it's impossible to work from home. There's no proper desk (makeshift small dresser table & stool for doing makeup!) plus kitchen is in the basement. Basically all the things i pointed out to him initially but mum is always
wrong!! and i didn't want to be controlling so supported his choice.
But he's starting to enjoy his placement and getting busy workwise. Socially he's still not got any friends there but went to Leamington last weekend to visit his old uni flatmates and seemed to enjoy that. His flat is 2 mins walk from the rail station so that's a good thing. @Decorhate I hope your ds doesn't get too lonely, might meet new friends at his placement & maybe even find new activities to fill his time. DS now gyms regularly day and a partner asked him last week if he'll be interested in volunteering at a nearby school in a deprived area to teach which i told him is a great idea. Driving lessons seem to have taken a back sit since the fail but i don't think there's any rush to be honest since he's not going to have a car until he graduates in 2026.

I'm so pleased Crazy. I too like ED have been thinking about dd, enraged at the injustice.

Hope it goes well @PhotoDad and you are able to remember a lovely memory that makes you all laugh.

@shimy it’s frustrating when they don’t listen but to be honest he’ll probably learn more and settle in more quickly being in the office every day. Plus it can get lonely at home on your own.

Good news about other people’s placements too, it’s such a positive to get some real work experience and some contacts before your final year. I’m hoping ds will do a placement year if he ends up going to uni. I confess I have drafted his personal statement for him 😩 never would have considered it for dd! But he’s working such long hours and the head of sixth form said it had to be with her tomorrow (this was on Friday!) because she’s also got 145 year 13s to do. He’s earmarked an hour later between food prep and the gym to look at it and decide on his five choices!

@crazycrofter my placement year was the single best thing I ever did for my career.

@EternallyDelighted I couldn't get one in my time. I so much envied those who did, I didnt have a clue what i was doing and there was no internet where you could register somewhere and new vacancies just entered your inbox. Anyway, I had to go back and do 3rd yr. All the one who did placements were snapped up straight after graduation, all graduate training programs! while the rest of us spent nearly 2yrs finding work so i was determined it wasn't going to happen to my dc depending on what they studied.

I got really lucky with mine @Shimy it was a compulsory part of the course and the lecturers had a huge network of employers and more or less matched us all up, we got given a list, chose a few, our details were sent and we went to interviews, in fact organising your own wasn't the done thing. My friend wanted to do one abroad and did organise it himself but that was very much the exception. I didn't realise at the time how lucky this was.

@EternallyDelighted REALLY??? that's sounds absolutely amazing. We were told simply to go and find one and let them know about it. I was going literally door to door with my small briefcase of CVs asking if they offered placements. If you don't mind me asking where did you go to uni?, mine was an ex Poly in London and did you get paid? Despite what people say about the old Polys having connetions etc, mine didn't seem to have any ..

Yes, it was paid and it was a good place to work, I learned lots and worked both summers so about 14 months in total, accommodation was the only issue, I lived in 4 different places which were somewhat variable in cost/quality and there was no support finding that whatsoever, as you say, trickier back then with no internet. It was a poly, back in the 80s before they all converted, Portsmouth.

@EternallyDelighted That was extremely good of the uni. Mine offered nothing! just goes to show there is so much variety in provision of each institution. When people are arguing over universities there are some things that you cannot know about from reading the prospectus. On paper you would think same course both polys offering placements would mean just that but it doesn't. Even RG provision differs across universities - for instance DS2's business school has its own dedicated careers dept separate from the main careers dept. It offers specialist advice for students on business courses. In the season for internship applications etc they invited in a Consultant to practice case studies with them so they could pass the case study assessments offered by nearly all the consultants and banks. I think this was valuable input by the university that has enabled DS and all his friends to secure internships/placement in these sectors & elsewhere. Speaking to a friend at another RG ds on same course with placement, found out they offered nothing like this.

Placement years did not exist in
my uni back on the dark ages. Though some of the new unis (similar to polys here) had started to offer them. It would have transformed things if they had been available - I probably would have been a lot more confident in my original career and stuck with it, rather than suffering from imposter syndrome.

My older Ds also did one and now has a graduate job with that company. I wouldn’t say he is getting the best experience but the pay is ok and it took a lot of pressure off once he’d had the job offer. He will do the graduate programme and then look around again.

There’s no guarantee ds2 will get a graduate job offer, they have already made it clear that it’s not automatic. But I think it will look really good on his CV. I still have no idea how he managed to get the placement!

Dd has just applied for a mental health social work grad training scheme - very competitive so we’ll see. I’m quite impressed with her deciding to apply actually, as originally she was wanting a gap year, and then she decided she’d apply for something for Sept but she needed her summer off! 🤣 This starts in July…

3 of the degrees ds is applying for have optional placement years. I’m just not sure how much help they get in finding placements?

@crazycrofter It's difficult because it's not a statistic that is gathered and they all wax lyrical about 'where' their students have done placements with no explicit info about how they got them, the support offered, or their success rates in securing them. However, there are always nuanced ways to uncover some of missing information. I remember at one of the unis ds and i visited, while he was talking to a student i got chatting with the HOD & asked him about placements. His reply was, ' they all apply for placements in the beginning, then 70% of them never do it because they switch...what can we do???'. The student that took us round on offer day, shared with us how he had struggled to get a placement during his undergrad at the same uni, so he had gone on to do a Masters and was worried because he had not received any job offers yet nor done any internships. At Birmingham, ds asked same question and they promptly called over their 'dedicated placement officer'. Swansea uni also had a dedicated placement officer who spoke extensively about CV/Interview support including negotiating salaries on behalf of their students, which i was quite impressed by. I know this is all very anecdotal but you do start to get a feel for what support is on offer.

That's interesting @shimy! Perhaps this is another reason to go on some open days - or at least offer holder days! I think I might have to go on my own though - is that allowed?

I only went on offer holder days. I think it might be a bit odd going on your own as they are likely to ask about your dc? I did call Swansea once when ds was at at school before he firmed it as insurance because i had read on here that if the student is not on track for a 2.1 i.e at end of yr 2 then even if they are successful at securing a placement, the uni will veto it which I thought was ridiculous. The HOD thankfully explained it had recently ditched that policy as they agreed it was unfair & was so very pleased i had called so you can also call to ask specific questions although i know some frown at it here but most unis put a number to call on their website for more info plus an email if you need more info so the pearl clutchers on MN do make me laugh.

You could go to an offer holder day and just pretend you are with your DC but they are off talking to someone else. Or that they are ill and couldn't come. I went to a normal open day with DD recently and on one of the department tours they mentioned something in their research which was highly relevant to me (but not DD) so I asked about it and before I knew it I was being whisked off by a student to talk to the prof in question without DD, I really don't think they mind who they talk to and they don't note names when its a casual chat.

Thanks @shimy and @EternallyDelighted . The problem is that ds will be abroad Jan and Feb, possibly back for six weeks then away again. Maybe I'll see what I can find out on the phone before going to offer days on my own!

Ds2 has gone to London on his own for the first time, meeting ds1 and going to the spurs v Man City game, then staying at Ds1's apartment overnight. I'm so pleased. This is all new for me, Dh and I home alone, feels odd nice.

How lovely @Oblomov24 , enjoy the peace!

Aw, that’s lovely @Oblomov24 Bro’s hanging out.

That will warm my heart too @Oblomov24 , thought of all them bonding as adults. Enjoy yourself.

Hope that all goes well, @Oblomov24!

DD had originally signed up for the placement year version of her course, but switched to the three-year version when she realised that (a) it was almost impossible to find a placement, and (b) she will probably be doing a master's anyway. If she does end up in illustration, it's 90% freelance and based on her portfolio, so work experience is perhaps less important.

We are flying home from Jersey today, the ceremony for my dad was lovely and provided a certain sense of closure. Plus we've seen a lot of the sights, and had some truly spectacular meals (something close to my dad's heart).

@Oblomov24 DH and DS were at the game last night!

I need everyone's fingers crossed please! DS had an interview all day yesterday for the same job that he originally applied for back in March/April and was gutted not to get. He was a lot more prepared this time and yesterday went really well. At the end they took the last three candidates together and indicated that they plan to offer but need to get it through HR as they are hiring a few posts. I think it was really bad to say that to them and almost offer but not quite, but we need fingers crossed that the official paperwork and offer does actually come through... And that they get the go-ahead for three jobs as the other two are internal...

@24newernames
Glad they too were there! ⚽️
🤞for ds job offer.
Glad it all went well PhotoDad.

Glad it all went well @PhotoDad