[oh_1993]

At school, I was forced to do BTEC ICT and BTEC PE and almost BTEC Science aswell.
All we had to do was write down a load of stuff that we were told to write down, copy from a sheet things about how long a football pitch is and the rules of badminton, or in ICT about how to change font in Microsoft Publisher.

If we got stuck, the teacher would tell us the answer again so we could write it down or, on occasions, do it for us. I know people who have failed all their GCSE's, barely ever turned up at school and still got Distinctions in BTEC's. And whats worse is they are considered to be worth 2 GCSEs (according to my teacher)

It just seems to me that they prove nothing, particularly when you can be helped through all the way to the end. Is this not just an easy way out for people incapable of passing GCSE's and A-Levels?

Please tell me if I'm being naive. I would like to hear all opinions.

[tuckla07]

(Original post by oh_1993)
At school, I was forced to do BTEC ICT and BTEC PE and almost BTEC Science aswell.
All we had to do was write down a load of stuff that we were told to write down, copy from a sheet things about how long a football pitch is and the rules of badminton, or in ICT about how to change font in Microsoft Publisher.

If we got stuck, the teacher would tell us the answer again so we could write it down or, on occasions, do it for us. I know people who have failed all their GCSE's, barely ever turned up at school and still got Distinctions in BTEC's. And whats worse is they are considered to be worth 2 GCSEs (according to my teacher)

It just seems to me that they prove nothing, particularly when you can be helped through all the way to the end. Is this not just an easy way out for people incapable of passing GCSE's and A-Levels?

Please tell me if I'm being naive. I would like to hear all opinions.

Well of course it varies from course to course; I personally had a very similar experience with ICT, but that was on OCR national first award. I also did a business BTEC and found that I learned a lot, because a lot of it was done independantly, unlike what you clearly did.
To be honest, I don't think it's about the BTEC, but the way it is approached and the coursework element; teachers who can't teach the basic skills very well, or who doubt that their pupils can do it individually, seem to just do their coursework for them just to get the grades :/

[Yeah That's Me]

I did BTEC ICT and it was basically using the knowledge I have to do the work. So no, I didn't learn anything new. My teacher even assumed that we didn't know how to search on Google, so he 'taught' us.

[Pride]

BTEC in theory is great, but when too many schools are thinking about how they place on the league tables, they're not going to be pushing for you to be independent, or for you to learn lots. Only enough to get as many as possible passing to push the percentages up and look good on the tables. It's a shame really, because in theory, BTECs could really help those who want to opt for vocational routes rather than academic. Too many BTEC courses (not all though, I have heard good stories too) are just dosses.