Which 2 Options do you think DS should be looking at for an interest in Engineering...aerospace maybe? Photo Attached

[123lookatme]

He is interested in engineering of some sort and us saying aerospace...we have z optiond meeting next week. Only has 2 options from this list and then has to choose 2 reserve subjects. He's thinking Design & Technology and Btec Engineering ... they used to do GCSE engineering but then took it off this yr for Btec. Looking at Computering as a reserve but not sure. School isnt much help he said in advising

Toomanytealights I've just checked the entry requirements for our local ex-poly & the points they require are equivalent to ABB. I think most courses will try to stick to that even if they are in clearing as students will struggle if they don't have a certain ability in maths.

Oh heck I'm confused now. My ds has to choose between Geography,Hist,CS and DT. We were pushing towards a humanity( for Ebacc and CS). Now wondering if DT and CS would be better.

Interestingly my dh did his Mech Eng degree at Cardiff with Btechs at nightschool.Got a 2:1 and then a Masters Computer Science at Sheffield. Did well in his career.Said the maths was hard in his degree as he didn't have Alevel but he coped,is naturally very good at maths and had to always drive himself( no family support hence the lack of Alevels). I think ds would be fine if he got on an engineering course. He has us though and is doing well at Physics/Maths.

Apologies op,I've hijacked your thread a tad. Will start my own if not useful.

Quite honestly do the EBac plus DT plus whatever he likes. Don’t go too light on subjects and don’t forget there is a difference between BEng and MEng. If he’s ex poly and it’s BEng, they won’t care. If he really wants a good job with fast career progression and wants to get Chartered, MEng is the best bet. Alternatively, look at the many other disciplines of Engineering. No-one who is competent at a Civils and Struvtutes will be out of a job! We are crying out for them. Don’t neglect soft skills. Even Drama can be useful for honing this!

Any apprenticeship schemes with the aerospace industry are highly competitive and they will look at high exam results too. Going in at 16 and expecting accelerated promotion isn’t likely above their grad intake with MEng otherwise why would anyone do a degree?

Computing is a bit vague and being phased out, ICT is the more rigorous

That’s not true, surely?!

DS is taking computing for gcse and has put down to take it for A level-no one has mentioned this before!

Liz-can you expand on this for me, please??

Maths, physics and chemistry A levels. I know two engineering admissions tutor at different Universities neither consider engineering GCSE or A levels taken at school.

@Appuskidu no, I think Liz had got that he wrong way round. Computer Science is definitely not vague and definitely not being phased out.

It's Ebacc and either CS or DT or CS and DT and no humanities.Any thoughts?

To the previous poster pretty sure CS is the more well thought of GCSE.

I would do a humanity. Geography can be a useful background for some Engineering disciplines but you have to decide if CS is more useful.

Ooh yes I think I passed my Geology module by recalling what I'd learnt in Geography at school!

Geography can foster an interest in environmental engineering and designing to mitigate flooding in particular. All sorts of subjects can be relevant and stimulate interest. No-one working for DH programs computers but they do a lot of work designing water and traffic management!

It's DT we're thinking of ditching for history( he hates geography)😬

He's quite interested in robotics.🤔

I'd go for either DT or Computing equally - engineering will require more and more computing and this will be much more relevant to engineering than ICT would which is more for people who need to use computer technology for non-technical applications. However DT would be fun.

For the second column I would definitely go for economics. Too many times a genius engineer ends up inventing something brilliant and then fail to properly capitalise on the potential of their idea. I know economics at gcse is more about government and political stuff but being able to engage with the topics of tax and finance as well as the technicalities of engineering.