school leaving age up to 18 and what about joining the army?
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school leaving age up to 18 and what about joining the army?This is something I thought of when discussing other age requirements on another thread, but these questions are rather specific and the other thread would go into a muddly chaos if I added these aswell.
Presently you can leave school at 16 and join the army, although won't be on the frontline until 18 unless ww3 happens or something.
But the school leaving age will be raised to 18 soon. I don't think that you have to stay at your actual school to do a-levels, you can go off and do vocational stuff at other colleges or whatever as a-levels aren't for everyone. But will joining the army be an option? or will you have to wait til 18 to join in any capacity?
Like I said I'm already in sixth form so this doesn't affect me and the following hasn't really been explained to me.
Will some people still only end up with gcses? I mean will the people that fail gcses the first time, at 16 have to do them again, or would they be allowed to go do nvqs / btecs as they can presently? Won't this be better for everyone if they do redo gcses as for basic jobs employers ask for a few Cs at gcse, so more people will be employable. So when there are more jobs about, more people can egt them rather than staying on benefits.
Plus if this is the case, won't the percentage of people getting over 5 gcses at 16 increase? As teens will be motivated to work harder so they don't have to repeat it?Last edited by Clare~Bear; 29-04-2012 at 10:55. -
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Re: school leaving age up to 18 and what about joining the army?The forces will decide whether they want under 18s but they will be allowed to have them because work-based training will "count" for the purpose of the raised school leaving age.(Original post by Clare~Bear)
This is something I thought of when discussing other age requirements on another thread, but these questions are rather specific and the other thread would go into a muddly chaos if I added these aswell.
Presently you can leave school at 16 and join the army, although won't be on the frontline until 18 unless ww3 happens or something.
But the school leaving age will be raised to 18 soon. I don't think that you have to stay at your actual school to do a-levels, you can go off and do vocational stuff at other colleges or whatever as a-levels aren't for everyone. But will joining the army be an option? or will you have to wait til 18 to join in any capacity?
Like I said I'm already in sixth form so this doesn't affect me and the following hasn't really been explained to me.
Will some people still only end up with gcses? I mean will the people that fail gcses the first time, at 16 have to do them again, or would they be allowed to go do nvqs / btecs as they can presently? Won't this be better for everyone if they do redo gcses as for basic jobs employers ask for a few Cs at gcse, so more people will be employable. So when there are more jobs about, more people can egt them rather than staying on benefits.
Plus if this is the case, won't the percentage of people getting over 5 gcses at 16 increase? As teens will be motivated to work harder so they don't have to repeat it? -
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I'd imagine it would end up like the Scottish Highers system, where you can leave at 16, or have the option to stay for up to two years. If you fail your exams you have the option to resit them, and if you pass you can go on and do an 'advanced higher' in your final year, which sometimes replaces first year at uni (meaning if you had done three relevant advanced highers, and applied to uni, they'd put you straight into second year).
But if you have to resit an exam since you failed it, you still need to mention that on your personal statement, which can be a bit of a disadvantage...
And we don't have to stay in the one school in our final year, there's tonnes of vocational activities to do, plus you may need to go to another school if your own doesn't do the subject you want!Last edited by TopQuark; 29-04-2012 at 11:08. -
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Re: school leaving age up to 18 and what about joining the army?A former chief schools' inspector says it should reduce to 14 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15146240
A former Bank of England adviser says it should be 18 - http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...e-blanchflower
"A department for education spokesman last night said that the school leaving age in England is due to rise to 18. It is first due to rise to 17 in 2013 and then 18 in 2015." - final paragraph of the second link.
In a strange way, both are right - in parts. Woodhead is right in that forcing people down the academic route when it's really not their thing is wrong. Blanchflower is right in that anything young people go on to do up to the age of 18 should have a strong education or training component in them. One of the key drivers in all of this is dealing with "NEETS" - those Not in Education, Employment or Training. The fear with high levels of youth unemployment is that we risk losing an entire generation to the scrapheap.
