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19 and over
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Learning

Throughout your life you will continue to learn and study. You could follow formal qualifications at a college and university or you might want to learn a new hobby or leisure activity in a community centre. The choice is endless, but immediately after school your options are normally between taking general or vocational courses. So what’s the difference?
  • General – tend to focus on academic subjects like history, maths or English
  • Vocational - offer the practical skills and experience needed for work such as business and administration, travel and tourism or engineering.
You will find lots of advice on choosing courses and different qualifications at:
http://www.qca.org.uk/14-19/homepage/students-and-parents.htm

For information about choosing your options in either year 9 or 11 you can download specially written booklets at: You are probably being told that learning and studying after school is important, but why is this?

The changing face of work
Information technology and computers have had a huge effect on jobs and there has been an increase in the numbers of small businesses. This means that employers need to be sure that their staff have the qualifications, skills and flexibility to be both competitive and adaptable to the needs of their contracts.

Qualifications and skills
When you apply for work, employers will use your qualifications as a guide to show whether you have reached the required standards of their jobs.
However, as well as qualifications, employers also need employees with a range of skills such as communication, team working and numeracy.
Known as Key or Functional Skills these are considered to be very important because in some areas of work employers say there are shortages of applicants with the correct mix of skills and qualifications. In response, many schools, colleges and universities now include sessions on skills alongside or as part of their courses.

Helping yourself
There are loads of courses to choose from. Before you decide on which one to apply for we suggest that you:
  • Do some research using prospectuses to check the types of courses and level of qualifications you are interested in
  • Research your career idea and discover if you need specific entry qualifications
  • Decide if you want to continue studying your favourite subject at a higher level rather than because it has a career focus.
  • Compare the results from different courses and learning centres
  • Compare your potential qualifications with those of your chosen course
For further information and advice on your education and learning choices try using the following links: