Construction BTEC (yrs10-11)

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What do they actually learn to do and is it actually useful for getting a job later in the industry?

According to my ds it attracts the "wrong kind" in his school and the participants seem to spend an awful lot of time in detention...hopefully that is a reflection on the particularly bad cohort, not the course. What that does say to me though is choose carefully where to take particular courses. Ds is on an engineering btec and is hoping to do it right through to degree level via a vocational route, fingers crossed. Gulp.
What year is your dc, yr 9?

IME such courses (at KS4) are used as part of an alternative curriculum for pupils who are disengaged from the mainstream for varying reasons. Agree that post 16 qualifications are more useful

DS is only yr6 actually. My older DC spend a lot of time talking about GCSEs and DS said his future ambitions was something like building houses. I started to wonder about pathways into the building trades. If a BTEC 1 would help him get an apprenticeship or was an accurate taste of the work to be sure it's what he wanted, then that would make it useful.

Rough sort of kid to mix with is fine, at least he'd know what he was getting into.

If he's not y6 things will probably have changed by the time he seriously considers the options. TechEbacc is the latest. However these courses are often seen as an alternative for those without the attention span or basic skills for GCSEs hence many are less than committed towards it. If offered in a college environment it can feel too little structure for 14/15year olds and less closely supervised. Some schools work in partnership with local colleges, so students attend both but it creates a difficulty of accountability.

Good tips, thanks.

This is going to depend on the sort of job he wants as to whether it is a useful qualification or not. Does he wasn't to work for a large housing developer or be trade person brought in from a smaller firm? If so, what trade? I would look at the web sites and careers available at the large house builders to give you some idea of what they look for, what training schemes they might have and what types of jobs there are.

I can tell you though, their hire and fire attitude is awful! Constant job changes and a complete merrygoround. If financial targets are not met, everyone blames everyone else. Construction can be buoyant or in the doldrums!