Sorry another options question

[inthesticks]

DS is particularly able at Maths and I would see him probably doing Maths and Sciences at A level. He hasn't a clue what he wants to do so needs to keep his options open. He will do 3 sciences, Eng lang and Lit, French, Geography, RE, Maths and Statistics at GCSE.
He is keen to do PE as a GCSE and I think he has suffient weight in his other subjects to allow that. Plus I think the leadership skills in the course will be good for him.

His problem is the 4th "option". He can choose GCSE D&T in food, textiles, product design or resistant materials. He pretty much hates them all. He wants to go for the food which I think is a rubbish course as it doesn't appear to involve proper cookery skills, more design a sandwich. I can teach him to cook.
The alternative to the GCSE in D&T is BTEC in engineering, a vocational course with no exam marked entirely on course work. I thought he might find this course more interesting, but I worried that it will look like a soft option?

DS yr9 is hopefully doing the BTEC electronic enigineering (is that the same course?) and we worried about the level of the course as DH is an electronics engineer and DS is top set etc
DT teacher told us that he wants mainly top set student ie a ratio of about 2-1 which will help pull up the lower ability students.
He said the course work he has chosen is virtually identical to GCSE course but if the whole of the course is completed it can be equivelant to 4 gcses.

DS has been going to the 6th form electronics club since he was year 7 and so he knows DS well and we are satisfied it's not a soft option.

Thank you.
I spoke to the head of D&T and he says the BTEC course is around electronics and CAD. It's a first certificate so only takes up one option choice but is allegedly "worth" 2 GCSEs.

I am going to ask DS to discuss this with the D&T teacher, DS may decide it's a reasonable alternative to the other four options.

Going off the point here, but can someone explain to me how one qualifacation, a BTEC is 'worth' 2 or even 4 GCSEs. It is a phrase I have heard many times but don't really understand it. When my son was deciding on options and possibly going to take GCSE ICT, a friend said that her child was taking a ICT qualifications that was 'worth' 4 GCSEs!!!

If this is the case, why are kids still taking ordinary GCSEs or am I been really stupid.

League tables in a word.
You may have noticed that schools which previously did not achieve high GCSE results are suddenly producing huge numbers, (although not including English and Maths).

BTECs are courses designed for less academically able children and focus on more practical skills.
There are no exams involved and it's all done on course work. I have no problem with that at all. Those kids used to miss out if they were only entered for GCSEs which they were bound to fail.

The problem arises because someone decided that BTECs had to be viewed as equal to GCSEs. So some BTECs are said to be worth up to 4 GCSEs. There are pupils who come out of school with 4 BTECs in vocational subjects such as bricklaying or hairdressing and they are said to have the eqivalent of 16 GCSEs.

I could rant on.

Well your reply makes perfect sense, thank you.

It also answers many of the queries I have had since having teens who are taking GCSEs etc and the inevitable comparisons of the achievements of kids who have grown up together but are not at the same school now.