Planning for your future – Exam Season

Students

We would like to wish all students the best of luck with the exams and assessments they are working through at the moment; whether they are taking GCSEs, A Levels, Degrees, Diplomas or Apprenticeship assessments. You have worked hard – eat, sleep, and do your best. Your Teachers, Lecturers, Training Assessors are all supporting you where they can. From this stage, you move on to your next chapter…

The courses people take are evolving, and we thought this snapshot from the CDI might help you to see what the choices are as people progress through the levels. At level 3 – post 16,  we have A levels, T levels, Applied General Qualifications (include Diplomas e.g. Business and Sports Science and vocational qualifications e.g. Construction, Catering)  and Apprenticeships.  There are a lot of choices which are funded from ages 16-18 years.

Apprenticeships can be applied for at any age over 16, there is no upper age limit; and with a huge choice of subjects on offer, there is something for everyone. Finding the employer can be the challenge. Apprenticeships are advertised on various websites, for example, Cornwall Opportunities. You can also look at Get My First Job, Gov.uk, and your local college websites.

Employers

As exams come to an end, you may start to receive applications from students having just finished their level 2 or level 3 qualifications. Due to this, you will likely be seeing target grades on the applications. Here is a small table to give you an idea of the comparisons with older qualifications. If you are employing young people, please be considerate and give them time to be the best they can be during exam season.