BTECs are more valued in the real world, they have higher employability than A levels for both graduates (80% vs 73%) and non graduates (49% vs 45%)
I have secured placement at a really good company and one of the interviewers said that they were impressed by the amount of content that was covered on my BTEC and that it was a good decision that I made to take it instead of A levels as real world practical skills are more valued (after they asked why i did it instead) - thats coming from someone who works in industry (Cyber)
I have also heard the same at a previous placement that I did, where I overheard one of the higher managers talking to my line manager asking about my background and whether training me was going to utilise too much of their time, and my line manager replied "its okay, he has a BTEC" - subsequently that manager offered me a permanent job (part-time around my studies) on my second day there - this was also in an IT role
they are preferred by employers, I also have a friend who got an apprenticeship as a Software Engineer and the first part of the apprenticeship included doing a BTEC level 3 which he already had and got to progress and advance a lot quicker than the people with A levels who spent the first year of their apprenticeship doing the BTEC that they could have done instead of their A levels which were pretty useless as all the initial skills they needed were covered on the BTEC that they could have already done 2+ years previous.
I had friends at college who mocked me for taking BTEC (they did A levels) they said I wouldnt get into uni or get a good job and now a lot of them (who didnt go to uni) are working in unskilled jobs (mostly supermarkets and restaurants and some in Fast Food chains!) and this summer i will be working in Cyber Security before going back to uni to finish the last 1/2 years of my MSci degree
Funny isnt it?