Help my son wants to quit college

Hi my son is in his 2nd year at college taking maths, further maths and acccounting. His college teach maths a level in the 1st year and then further maths in the 2nd year. Last year he was fine and made good progress but this year he's struggling massively and its affecting his desire to apply to universities. What is also a concern is that he has no idea what he even would want to study at uni as previously it would have been maths but now he doesn't feel capable enough. He achieved an 8 in maths in gcse. Can anybody out there guide me in ways to help him as I don't want him to give up and I hate to see him feel so negative about himself.

Hi,

Thank you for your post, I’m sorry to hear about this situation but it’s brilliant you’re looking for some advice for your son.

It can be difficult to offer specific suggestions, simply as there could be a lot of different factors which are affecting his studies and his motivation at the moment, but a good starting point is to try and get him to identify exactly what it is about the courser at the moment which is causing him to struggle. Some might find the work a little too complex, others might be finding the others in the class a distraction while others might not be best suited to learning in the classroom environment so there could be a multitude of factors involved.

If he hasn’t already, I would suggest he speaking with his teacher about how he is feeling at the moment – it’s very likely that quite a few students might find the change from first to second years difficult and they might have a few suggestions about what they can do to help.

Lots of students aim for university as they feel this is the only routes available and the only way they will be able to study towards a degree qualification – with the introduction of alternative routes such as degree apprenticeships, it’s no necessary for him to attend university to get the same type of qualification if he don’t feel sure that university is the right path.

I would recommend having a look through the below details which give more information about degree apprenticeships so if it’s something he might be interested in, you’ve got a bit of background information as well:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-and-degree-apprenticeships

There are a wide range of different apprenticeship available so it may well be worth him having a look through to see if anything sparks his interest – it may be that having a different goal will be all the motivation he needs!

Every situation is different so I would certainly recommend you get in touch with our expert advisers for free on 0800 100 900 – they will be able to speak to your directly to offer further details and suggestions for next steps. You can also get a better idea about what contacting is like so that if your son wishes to get in touch himself, you can let him know more about it. Our advisers are available from 8am to 10pm every day.

I hope this helps as a starting point but please feel free to get back in touch and we will be more than happy to help!

Good luck!

Tom.