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Can Apprenticeship lead to Uni? Or should I take A levels

Hi, I am doing my GCSE exams in less than a month, and I am not sure whether I should take A levels, and go to a college, or I should do an apprenticeship. I am really interested in web design, software development, and I have been doing it for over around 1 1/2 years, and I have learned a lot since then. I was going to go to a College in West London and take Maths, Computing, Philosophy and Politics A levels. I have already applied to a college, and if I turn up to the enrolment then I will be studying there, however I was looking at apprenticeships today to see if I can find something web design/development related ones or not, and unexpectedly I did. So I am in a dilemma: should I go and do an apprenticeship which includes full training and which would allow me to further develop my knowledge in what I really enjoy, and which would also provide me a Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship for IT, Software, Web and Telecoms Professionals (which is like a level 3 diploma). My other option would obviously be to go to College and do my a levels (only a tiny bit of the computing course is based around web development unfortunately), and then see what I can do afterwards. I wanted to study web development/computer science at University after my A levels, but I am not sure if it's worth waiting another 2 years just to study that, and I was wondering if I could apply to do web development after my Apprenticeship. Any help is appreciated.
Original post by lotusbob
Hi, I am doing my GCSE exams in less than a month, and I am not sure whether I should take A levels, and go to a college, or I should do an apprenticeship. I am really interested in web design, software development, and I have been doing it for over around 1 1/2 years, and I have learned a lot since then. I was going to go to a College in West London and take Maths, Computing, Philosophy and Politics A levels. I have already applied to a college, and if I turn up to the enrolment then I will be studying there, however I was looking at apprenticeships today to see if I can find something web design/development related ones or not, and unexpectedly I did. So I am in a dilemma: should I go and do an apprenticeship which includes full training and which would allow me to further develop my knowledge in what I really enjoy, and which would also provide me a Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship for IT, Software, Web and Telecoms Professionals (which is like a level 3 diploma). My other option would obviously be to go to College and do my a levels (only a tiny bit of the computing course is based around web development unfortunately), and then see what I can do afterwards. I wanted to study web development/computer science at University after my A levels, but I am not sure if it's worth waiting another 2 years just to study that, and I was wondering if I could apply to do web development after my Apprenticeship. Any help is appreciated.


Why not look at BTEC national diplomas? They offer the best of both worlds as it is a level three qualification ( the same as alevels) so you can go to uni. They offer a more vocational take on learning perfect for your chosen area some universities prefer alevels but if you are certain on your career path then it would actually be a lot more specifically relevant to a web design degree for example to have a BND in web design which includes practical web design experience.

Check your local colleges to see which BTECs they offer but there are several in this area. (BTECs are purely coursework btw no exams and highly practical based).

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