The Student Room Group

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Reply 1
I'd go to 6th form with a view to doing an engineering degree. Then you could get involved with product design which would probably be quite interesting.
I agree with Sync... go to 6th form, get your A Levels - without them, you're pretty much screwed unless you don't mind starting your career at the bottom of the ladder. Like Sync said; go to uni and get yourself a degree - you could earn big money with an engineering degree and you wouldn't be expected to start as an apprentice.
Reply 3
There's the chance of failing at both, there's also the chance to do one and not like it.

Do whatever you feel you will like best, learning isnt for everyone, being an apprentice will be earning you money now and money once your mates are just leaving college in 2 years (if you stick it out)

Either way is better than being a bum lol
Reply 4
I think there's a strong argument for getting a job. Basically it depends how clever you are, if you are going to go to Sixth Form and get 3 poor A-Levels then you are probably better off having some experience....
Reply 5
University graduates can get technician jobs. School leavers cant get product design jobs.
It does depend on your intelect. what did you get in your gcse's?
Reply 6
Take the job - you can always do A Levels and university later if you want to but if this is a one-off opportunity that's connected to what you want to do then I say take it.
Reply 7
I'm predicted 1 A* 4 As 1 B and 3 Cs. But I don't want to go to university I already know that. The way I see it is I will have earned a lot more money than someone leaving university have no debt and will also be on around the same pay as someone taking a graduate job as a master technician and will have had 5 or 6 years more work experience compared to someone leaving uni. What do you feel the chances of promotion and to a high paid job are through an apprenticeship with BMW. By high paid I mean £40000+.
Reply 8
But there won't be much job security.
Reply 9
All I was told to bear in mind was that if I did the apprenticehsip, after a few years the people of the same age would be leaving uni with good qualificaitons and up to date research knowledge etc, so if going through the apprenticeship, you'd have to be going under constant training to keep up.... but then it depends on how common internal promotion is at BMW(?)
If it was me I would at least go through A-levels, but again I don't know what promotion prospects are, or how easy it is to get up the ladder from the bottom.
Reply 10
Why you think that?
Reply 11
I meant why you think there won't be much job security? Does anyone know any car service apprentices who have done well and have good jobs?
Reply 12
At least do A-levels you'll in a much better position pretty much reguardless of what you get and there will still be opportunities to become an apprentice later. The prospects for carreer advancement increase in relation to you level of education even if you have more experience. I know because my dad worked for Ford for 40 years.
Reply 13
What does your dad do at ford?
Reply 14
Are they offering you day release, or evening classes? If so take the job and do the a-levels as well.
Yeah you could do both. Even if it takes you a year longer, it's worth doing it alongside your job. At least if it doesn't work out, you're not so screwed for later on.
Without any level 3 qualifications, it's fairly unlikely you'll be looking at a well paid job (40k+) no matter what industry you go into. Unfortunately, qualifications are what most employers want, compared to actual work experience. Qualifications show in paper form that you are skilled, competant and literate - and that's very important in a well paid job.
Reply 17
Ilora-Danon
Unfortunately, qualifications are what most employers want, compared to actual work experience.

Since when? I'd think there are relatively few industries where qualifications are more useful than actual experience.
Reply 18
My Dad has no formal qualifications what so ever and he earns over £40000 a year.
Reply 19
tomc87
All I was told to bear in mind was that if I did the apprenticehsip, after a few years the people of the same age would be leaving uni with good qualificaitons and up to date research knowledge etc, so if going through the apprenticeship, you'd have to be going under constant training to keep up.... but then it depends on how common internal promotion is at BMW(?)


its normally the other way round, hence why it's called "industry standard" and not "university standard", and why experience is often taken over qualifications. lecturers can only teach what they know, and a lot of them have been out of the industry for a while or are not fully up to date on the research. if it was me making the choice i'd go with the bmw idea, and hopefully some qualifications can be earned whilst on the job, then consider taking A levels in a couple of years if needed to boost up the CV. being a service apprentice will teach you about cars as you fiddle with them, hands on experience compared to sitting around looking at pictures.

bmw will probably want to keep you for a while after paying for the training, however its not stopping you moving to other garages/continuing study elsewhere after to get into a better job.

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