Advice on minimum qualifications please

[SE13Mummy]

I'm posting on behalf of a friend whose DC has received disappointing GCSE results today and if they were remaining in England, would need to retake maths and English. The whole family is moving to Scotland in September.

The DC will turn 16 at the end of August and has an apprenticeship lined up but my friend can't work out if their DC will need to somehow gain a Scottish qualification in maths and English. We've both looked at various sites but can't work out if Scotland has the same requirement as England when it comes to retaking core subjects. Any advice would be much appreciated, thank you!

Do you mean for the apprenticeship or just in general so they have the qualification?

In general really. In England, the DC would have to retake English and maths regardless of next steps.

My youngest left school in 2020 so could have changed but no need to resit maths or English. Big focus on positive destinations. Colleges do offer

Colleges do offer maths and english. Plus some online courses. DDs employer takes on lots of apprentices in construction subjects. Offers are conditional on certain number of passes but are flexible eg physics or maths or engineering science and english or history etc. They test maths and english pre interview anyway. Apprentices need to meet college entry requirements for day release course.

my understanding is that basic maths and English in Scotland would mean Nat 5 at grade C and in England would be be GCSE at grade 4. This would be the required level for many entry level jobs (and I would have thought for an apprenticeship) so if their GCSE grades are below that then yes, it would be worth them working towards a suitable qualification. They could take Nat 5 English and maths at a local college in Scotland.

The DC doesn't have a grade 4 in any of their GCSEs so would that mean they'd really need to look at studying Nat 4 rather than 5? Friend is worried that having no English qualifications and no Scottish ones might be a problem once the current apprenticeship is over.

Did they take GCSEs but didn’t get grades of 4 or above? If they have covered the GCSE syllabus then I would think they would be at the level to undertake Nat 5’s. A local college would probably be the best bet to advise I think somewhere like this www.west-lothian.ac.uk/courses/browse-by-subject/maths-english-languages/

Thanks @Tig33, that's exactly the situation; they've studied and taken GCSE exams this year but not got anything higher than a grade 3. I'll pass the link to my friend to look at.

No, they don't make you take Maths and English before moving into the next stage but they will include core skills of numeracy and communication to an equivalent level in a college course.
How do I know? , two of my sons have done it, well one has, the other is about to start. DS1 is starting a Computing degree without even sitting Nat5 Maths!

I'd advise he goes to school and enters 4th year and does his Nat 5s here.

He'll be old in his year but deferrals are become much more common.

That will give him 3 tries to get his basic qualifications. In Scotland you can retake nat 5s in 5th and 6th year.

No reason to rush into an apprenticeship when he doesn't have the basics.