Re: apprentiship for 15 year old

[sprout2]

Hello
My son is currently in year 10 and I would to see if there is an alternative to conventional school. He is dyslexic and struggles socially. However, he is a practical child. He also works well one to one.

I don't just want to home school him, I would like to find him an apprentiship, has anyone got any experience of arranging this for their child? I have been advised I should have put him in a UTC at the start of year ten, but I have missed the boat with that now.

My ideal would be to home school him 2 or three days a week (or he goes to college)and he works in an apprentice type role the other 2 or three days.
It would be good to hear from anyone who has experience of doing this.

Thanks

I'm not sure he can do that before 16, but I could well be wrong.

I would suggest you contact your local FE College and the UTC again to explore what options there are. Also maybe talk to the school's SENCO to see how flexible they could be.

Your son cannot legally start an apprenticeship until he is 16 years old. If he turns 16 during Year 11 he still cannot then start until the third week of June at the earliest.

In my school we do have the odd student who for a variety of reasons will undertake a long term work experience placement (1 day a week) throughout the school year, whilst the other days are spent in school.

I'm not sure what your options are during Year 10. I would definitely advise talking to the SENCO in school to dicuss this and see how flexible the school can be in terms of the timetable he has to follow and the options for work experience.

As others have said he can't start an apprenticeship till he's finished year 11. He would also be required to continue with Maths and English if he doesn't achieve grade 4s at school.

At this point in the year it's really a bit late to move. You should certainly talk to school about his current subjects if he's struggling with a view to maybe reducing the number so he has the best chance at Maths and English at least.

Not sure who advised you that your DS should be at a UTC but would read up on the background of the UTC very carefully first, plus read the EPI report on UTC's published in October 2018.

Good luck with finding an option that works for you