Leaving school at 16 with no GCSEs

[Girlmum2024]

I wonder if anyone can help me out here - trying to manage alone and becoming quite overwhelmed.

My eldest has just finished Year 11 and failed all his GCSEs. Long story short, school was a struggle, despite the fact that he is sharp, bright and extremely articulate. I wont bore you with the details of his school life but this is where we are at. He is not going back to school full time.

He did work experience over the Summer at two companies. He is hard working in a non school environment and thrived for the first time in his life. He loved working and being in the real world and the feedback I got from the employers was that he was a total pleasure, charming, hard working and super bright and analytical. They said they'd gladly offer him more experience and would provide references should he need in the future.

He is going to re sit Maths and English (he says just for back up and to please us rather than because he really want to) but alongside that he wants to get a job. He has found an excellent junior office role that is a great starting salary (£20-£25k), offers on the job training courses and opportunity to work your way up in the company and is in an industry he wants to work in. So potentially perfect for him and the same industry where he did his work experience. It does not specify any qualifications, just a number of office based skills, relationship building, microsoft etc. all of which he has in abundance. He has put together a great CV but I am worried about the education section. How does he handle that? I know if he were to get an interview he would have a good chance of progressing but we need to get him there? He would be totally honest at interview about his experience of school and exams. Should he pre empt with a phone call? What should he put in the education section? Is it ok to simply list the subjects he studied but without mentioning grades?

Does anyone have any experience of how employers would react to someone with no qualifications if they were otherwise impressed with them?

I don't have anything to add but I just wanted to say that I think he sounds great. Wish him all the very best.

Best of luck to him, op

It’s probably best that he just puts his grade 3s on his CV but notes he is preparing to re sit maths and English.
I genuinely don’t think GCSEs matter a bit once in a job though. What is much more important is the opportunity to gain professional qualifications as you go along, and actual work experience counts for a lot.
I did crap at school but I have 2 degrees now ( one of them I did through work as its professional qualification). I would encourage your son to aim high and practice interviewing, and to persevere.
Best of luck!

I was in the exact same position at that age, left school at 16 with terrible results and didn't go to college but still managed to get office roles and worked my way up. Best of luck to him! He just needs to put what he studied on his CV in terms of education without the results and wait till they ask, if they even ask. What important is what he can do such as Microsoft etc and if he's personable they won't care about grades.

PS If jobs are being funny about grades and he can't find one, he should do a couple of apprenticeships and you can gain qualifications that way as most are "on the job", he will also get work experience.

Your son has got GCSEs! Just at level 3. These are still GCSEs, for the sake of school league tables they are not classed as ‘good’ passes but he has still passed. No GCSEs would be a 0 grade.
He should absolutely list that he has these, if he doesn’t they will think he has no qualifications and will not short list him. Please reframe your thinking, he has GCSEs!! Please don’t let him think he doesn’t have any, he does!

I work in a college with mostly older students who have come out in a similar situation to your lad and have for various reasons, got by for some years and then decided they need GCSE. I'll give you my advice, based on what we hear from students and potential employers (by no means gospel truth, but this would be my take)

Do the job applications put the CGSE grades in. Employers aren't stupid. No grades means either, he's ashamed of his low grades and trying to hide them or he can't even bothered to fill in the application properly, in which case he either finds simple tasks really really hard, or he's very lazy and doesn't care. Low grades, and they know what they are working with.

Also if possible, get him into work experience ASAP with one of the companies that offered it. Even if he weren't in it long because he got another job, there is so much that that would show to an employer. Work ethic, desire and ability to get up for work and hold down a job, dedication. Plus, presuming that it's in the field he wants to work in, some knowledge of the field that could put him ahead of another fresh out of college.

Apply to college to re-take GCSEs. Make sure they put lots of support in for him and exam access arrangements and make sure he uses them! Rest breaks might be useful to him instead of extra time (very unlikely he'd get both) if attention is the problem more than speed. When you look round colleges, ask about the support they might provide.

Oh my goodness, please educate yourself! Grade 3s are still passes at GCSE! They are just not the ‘good’ pass benchmark that is set for league tables. To have failed GCSEs you would need to get below a level 1 i.e a 0 which is the equivalent of the old U grade at GCSE.
GCSE grades go from 9-1, all of these grades mean you have the qualification.

Schools report on pupils who get 4+ and 5+ but they also report on how many pupils pass at grade 9-1, you would be expect this figure to be close to 100% as most pupils will get at least a level 1 or above, these are reported as passes at GCSE.

For information some pupils have target grades of 3s and 2s at GCSE, still passes!

Its sad that schools drum it into you that without GCSEs you are stuffed and you cannot proceed to any kind of higher education. Clearly, they make the process smoother but there are so many vocational learning opportunities professional qualifications available - its just a different path that can be tailored to individual strengths, talents and interests. So many kids are made to feel like absolute failures because they are benchmarked against a format that is not designed for them. And I say this as someone who was highly academic and has multiple degrees and postgrad qualifications.

and if you can read properly, you will see in my next post where i explained that grade 4 is the GCSE minimum as set by the government to continue with education or to ensure you have sufficient literacy and numerical skills for employment. As OP wants their ds to further their education and has hinted they are very capable of much better results 5s 6s 7s then a grade 3 in English and Maths isn't going to be sufficient for him to get the office job he wants so there's no point waxing lyrical about how a 3 is pass grade.

HNRTT but perhaps focus the education section on skills relevant to the role and sector, along the lines of - GCSE Mathematics - competent arithmetic and mathematics to support an office administration role. GCSE English Language - excellent communication skills in written and spoken English Language. Depending on the sector of the employer and the subjects studied to age 16, do the same for other subjects. If the company is involved in design then say similar if he studied Design/Tech to age 16. So in effect, confirm he studied the relevant subjects to age 16 and has the skills that were developed during education as demonstrated in the successful work experience.

Does that make sense?

As a fallback, perhaps see if he can continue to work for free at the work experience firms until paid employment hopefully arises.

Good luck.

I am going to see what advice the local authority give when they help with the CV. They have already said we should include that he will be studying for Level 2s and that the focus must be on his actual skills relevant to the role.

I know someone who has yet to pass her GCSE math after taking the exam four times (last two functional math). She still has her qualification from college and has been volunteering at a hospital and care home and works at a pub. Now looking fur full time work in the care industry.
My son only has math and (two) English. He has PT/fitness testing qualification it won't stop him.
However I do know of a 50 year old who after her divorce wanted d to work as an assistant art teacher - she never earned her GCSE (or O level as was) Math and had to pass it before the school would hire her.

If you took GCSEs because you felt like it, fair enough. However to fail to acknowledge that MOST people, take them to enable them to access further study or jobs, and a good number of those opportunities require at least a 4, is strange. If you need a certain grade you FAIL to get into what you want if you don't get it, that seems like a fail.

You keep saying the government says ....but have you got a reference for this?

Every FE college in the country takes on students with no qualifications, with level 1 or level 2 qualifications. Hell one of my friends started with no qualifications took and HND then topped it up to a degree.

Employers can take on who ever they want, it is up to them what they state you need and for some jobs GCSEs are irrelevant.

So he had no support or adjustments with his exams?

Does he have an EHCP?

This is what I would do. Keep the CV skills focused and brief mention of GCSE's. Unfortunately at 16 there isn't usually the option to just retake English and Maths GCSE. They are only funded alongside a full time course. Look out for a pre-apprenticeship type course with work experience and M+E alongside. Provision varies such a lot from area to area you could really do with speaking to a local careers adviser.

Hear hear.

Schools add so much pressure onto kids today and only talk about one route. It's infuriating and actively damaging to so many children.

As an employer I would want to see his GCSEs and grades listed. If they are not I will assume he hasn't done them. Please don't mess around with putting passes at level 1 - it will mean nothing to many employers. I would say that applying for jobs like this is a long shot - we would take on 16 year olds via an apprenticeship. For this kind of role he is likely to be up against people with more experience so it's going to be tricky.

Not specific to your experience but the CEO at my last job came to the organisation at 16 on work experience (YTS). He was still pretty young but had done incredibly well because he is very bright and hard working. I don't think he passed his GCSEs either.

No adjustments other than being in a separate room to avoid distraction. He was offered extra time and a laptop to use but he declined both of those. Nothing else was offered or discussed.

No EHCP - Educational Psyc said he wouldn't be eligible as he doesn't have any learning disability. The ADHD is severe but from my understanding that is not enough to get an EHCP. I am not sure if it would have been helpful in any way.

I think that some kids will just never thrive in a mainstream school environment that offers one traditional path and what is really needed is more flexibility in schools to cater for different learning styles and needs. I think there is a long way to go.

No adjustments other than being in a separate room to avoid distraction. He was offered extra time and a laptop to use but he declined both of those. Nothing else was offered or discussed.
I’m not sure what other adjustments they could have offered?

Possibly none! I think there are other things people do get offered but I am not sure anything else would ultimately have made a difference. Just need to move forward from here now.

I think an apprenticeship would be a good way to go so as well as working which he seems to thrive on he will also gain a qualification which will be beneficial to him down the line when applying for other jobs. If he can retake maths and English and get a qualification through an apprenticeship that will provide him with a stronger future CV. If the education part of the apprenticeship is through a college they will also offer the maths/English part too.

I agree with listing subjects and grades and then if he gets an interview he could say predicted grades were high but the exam environment wasn’t appropriate for him, he’s planning resits in an evening class environment.

If they like him but are concerned about his literacy he could offer to share some coursework with them.

Could he look at non- office type jobs if they ask for more quals supermarket or service industry?