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Post-16 Pathways
Post-16 Pathways
An overview for students and parents
An overview for students and parents
Whether you are in Year 11 and maybe having a ‘wobble’ about your plans OR in Year 10 and starting to think about the step after Year 11 OR you could be the parent of a younger student, who just wants to understand how these things work! The landscape of post-16 options can look big and confusing. This should help to explain the pathways:
There are broadly three different ‘directions’ that students can go in after Year 11:
1. A levels; at either Sprowston, another Sixth Form or City College (the local options).
2. Vocational course; e.g. T-level, BTEC or similar. These are delivered by some Sixth Forms and mostly by local Further Education Colleges, such as City College and Easton College etc.
3. Apprenticeship/work-based route (must have accredited training alongside).
There are variations within the above options, but thinking about it in this way, keeps it simple to start with.
Certainly, this stage of Year 10 (summer term) is a good point to start some research in to these pathways. At Sewell Park we use the County Council 14 to 19 website Help You Choose www.helpyouchoose.org to support the post-16 application process. You can search for local courses. If you have a specific course or subject in mind and you want to ensure you aware of all the local options, this can be a useful tool:
Once you have selected the type of Courses you want to explore in the drop-down options, in this case it will be ’16-18 Full-Time Education’, you will be taken to the screen below:
You can put in a key term you would like to search for such as a subject title, e.g. Psychology or a vocational area e.g. Public Services.
You can also see above that alternatively you can search by a specific provider, subject, town or qualification.
To help with information gathering you can also have a look at the Sixth Form section of the school website. You will find information about the Sixth Form Pathways available and Course Details:
Moving back to the Help You Choose website. It is worth noting that in addition to this being a platform for helping students and parents to explore courses and post-16 pathways, there is a lot of general advice to be found on the website too. Spend some time having a look around this useful resource.
Once students are in Year 11, they will be supported in school to register on Help You Choose in preparation for applying to their preferred post-16 options through the site.
Please do remember that at the point in the autumn term where we are encouraging students to complete applications, this is not a final decision. They can apply for more than one provider and more than one course.
In the case of Sprowston, if they apply for a combination of subjects (normally 3 A levels) and then change their mind. They simply need to get in touch with the Sixth Form directly to change this.
We cannot emphasise this next piece of advice enough…..
Focus on the exploration of ideas for now. The most important thing is that students genuinely understand and have explored to a good level of detail, the content of any subject or course they are applying for. This sounds obvious doesn’t it? Believe me, this is the most common part of the process that students leave out!
Let’s move on to look at a local Further Education College, namely City College. This is not because I favour this provider, but simply because it is the next main ‘destination’ for Sewell Park students after Year 11. It is crucial that all students research into the options for themselves, supported by parents/carers. This will help to ensure they come to an informed choice.
So, City College:
From the homepage, a good starting point is Courses. You can select departments that interest you and then filter the courses in different ways.
It is useful to remember that Colleges, including City College offer courses at a range of levels. As a rule of thumb, the entry requirements are as follows (please check individual courses to confirm, as there are some exceptions to this):
Level 1 (normally a one-year course) – Low entry requirements or no entry requirements.
Level 2 (normally a one-year course) – Typically will require students to have achieved 3s in their GCSEs to sometimes include an English and/or Maths.
Level 3 (A level and equivalent and may be listed as a one-year course. However, typically students progress on to the second year having passed the first year at a certain level) – These courses will normally require students to have achieved 5 GCSEs at a 4 or above and will normally need these to include an English and Maths.
Remember, in many cases, you can start at Level 1 or 2 and then progress on to the next level.
Finally, to talk about Apprenticeships a bit. Over the last few weeks, this has steadily become our least favourite pathway to talk about, but probably the most important to tackle! The number of local vacancies has taken a significant downward term (Summer 2020). For the purposes of giving an overview of the pathways, let’s keep it general.
For a guide that will help you to understand Apprenticeships, go to:
Again, if you have further questions, drop the Careers Team an email at careesrs@sewellpark.org
We do hope the above information has helped to explain the options a bit. Whether you are a student or parent, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if this has raised more questions for you.
One of the most helpful things you can do to support your child through this process? Keep an open mind. Please support them to explore the possibilities, but do try not to allow any opinions/pre-conceptions you may have, to cloud any decision they need to make.
It’s not always easy, but do try to avoid starting any sentence with “I think you should….”.
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