Wellbeck College - Any knowledge?

[colapips]

My child is interested in going their for sixth form, any info on the place good or bad gratefully received.

TIA.

Great if you want to do Engineering in HM Forces as it is basically their sixth form for those interested in an engineering career. They provide help for getting to Uni and I think bursaries as well. Run along military lines I think. I would be pleased if ds wanted to consider it for sixth form.

My dd is very keen to join the RAF, and was told about this college. Do you know if it's only engineering, as she wants to be a pilot as ideal, so don't want her closing doors, if they can only go into engineering from it. Or is a pilot classed as an engineer (dumb emoticon)?

DD's friend went there- DD says her friend said she enjoyed it a lot; the army side of the training was very intensive, the academic side was very good & got her better grades than she had expected, but apparently when she decided she didn't want to carry on in the army, she had to pay quite a lot -possibly repaying a bursary?- and she wasn't allowed to go to the graduation ceremony.

My brother went there but 15 years ago if not 20 years ago. He studied maths and physics a-levels and something else. He did a maths degree afterwards, not engineering.

However he only stayed 2 terms. He reckoned that the standard of teaching wasn't very good. But like I said this was a long time ago. I also suspect he was homesick.

The facilities and grounds, etc were lovely.

Oh that's interesting Rusty, so have to be definite that you want to join the forces. Any idea how long you have to initially commit to the forces for?

Do you know stripey whether he your parents got financially penalised for leaving early?

Not that I would imagine my dd would (if I thought that I wouldn't send her from the off) but like to cover all bases.

He left before the end of the second term, I believe they weren't entitled to the rest of that term's fees. Which was fair enough. My parents didn't have to pay anything else.

He hadn't had a bursary though, my parents had paid his boarding fees, the MOD pay tuition fees I believe.

Don't know, I'm afraid, this is all second hand from DD, I can ask her to ask her friend, but I'm not sure when they'll be seeing each other again (or whether she would actually remember to ask!)

if you look on their website cola, it says you have to apply via the relevant force subsidising your dc's education- so RAF in your case. There's a link to the RAF website on the how to apply page which might tell you more about how long you need to commit-

here

looks like you either apply via the Army, RAF, Navy or you apply on the WPS (privately financed scheme) in which case you are not obliged to commit to service after school

www.raf.mod.uk/altitude/educationandcareers/welbeck.cfm

-engineer or logistician career path it seems

You do not have to commit to joining the Forces (though there is an expectation that you will, it is an MoD institution after all).

Whether or not you have to repay a bursary is separate, and depends on the terms of the award. The MoD bears all the tuition costs anyhow, parental contribution is required for living costs - free for incomes below £17k, rising to a maximum of £7k-ish (for a whole year) for those on £100k+

I've only ever heard good things about it.

thanks for clearing that up

Thank you all very much, it seems like it's a real possibility then - subject to of course my dd being accepted by them. But I'm happy to continue the process, I think my next stop will be our RAF recruitment offices in town.

She is already very involved in the Air Training Cor and loves it.

Friend of DS went there recently and went to a good Uni afterwards.

I think there was extra help with Uni costs but he had to join ATC and commit to a certain amount of time in the Forces post University. Could only go to certain Universities also.

Sounds as though she would thoroughly enjoy it there; sounds as though it's quite competitive to get in though.