Help/advice on my future nursing career

Hello, I am currently taking my GCSE's. I applied to a college near me to take a health care Level 3 course and alongside this a child care/early years apprenticeship where I will be based in a nursery. I wanted to then pursue my future by going to uni learning a children nursing course however got told i couldn't do that by a family friend.

I was told I needed a levels but unfortunately can't get them in science as my college offers differentqualifications as im only taking 1 course to pursue. Could i still get straight to uni just with this? Or I wondered would I still be able to get into the uni with my health care level 3 qualification (as well as the nursery work experience) to take om the children nursing course and gain qualifications this way.

I did look online here and other places and saw this was possible, to be a childrens nurse without this, but just wondered if it was still possible through other people's experiences. I did reas as long as you have the equivalent of an A level in either science, health care or nursing it should be all good?

Just needing some advice and help really. Thank you

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Original post by sophiexm

Hello, I am currently taking my GCSE's. I applied to a college near me to take a health care Level 3 course and alongside this a child care/early years apprenticeship where I will be based in a nursery. I wanted to then pursue my future by going to uni learning a children nursing course however got told i couldn't do that by a family friend.

I was told I needed a levels but unfortunately can't get them in science as my college offers differentqualifications as im only taking 1 course to pursue. Could i still get straight to uni just with this? Or I wondered would I still be able to get into the uni with my health care level 3 qualification (as well as the nursery work experience) to take om the children nursing course and gain qualifications this way.

I did look online here and other places and saw this was possible, to be a childrens nurse without this, but just wondered if it was still possible through other people's experiences. I did reas as long as you have the equivalent of an A level in either science, health care or nursing it should be all good?

Just needing some advice and help really. Thank you

The phrases "a health care Level 3 course" and "health care level 3 qualification" are too vague to be able to answer this question accurately. Do you know the full name of the course?

Is it, for example a "Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care"? That particular qualification would meet the entry requirements of many nursing degree courses - at the appropriate grade, obviously. But all level 3 courses are not the same, and are not all as accepted as this one. Which is why it's important to establish exactly what you'll be studying.

Many nursing degree courses will also mandate specific GCSE grades / subjects too.

Reply 2

miamcniven

10

Hiya! Instead of doing A levels I did an access to higher education diploma in nursing. This meant that I was able to apply to uni as it is the equivalent to 3 A levels as long as you get enough tariff points once the grades have been converted

Reply 3

sophiexm

OP

2

Original post by DataVenia

The phrases "a health care Level 3 course" and "health care level 3 qualification" are too vague to be able to answer this question accurately. Do you know the full name of the course?

Is it, for example a "Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care"? That particular qualification would meet the entry requirements of many nursing degree courses - at the appropriate grade, obviously. But all level 3 courses are not the same, and are not all as accepted as this one. Which is why it's important to establish exactly what you'll be studying.

Many nursing degree courses will also mandate specific GCSE grades / subjects too.

Hiya I apologise for not making this more clearer. I am obviously taking my GCSE's. In college i would be doing an Extended BTEC Level 3 Diploma. Does this get me the same access (as well as the equivalent A levels i need) as a 'national diploma' as both are confusing me. I just wondered if I could still get into univeristy studying a nursing course based on if I get my diploma out of this. I wanted to study children nursing to be a paediatric nurse. I read before on here how it's important to have to work experince alongside the knowledge which I would be getting.

Thank you

Reply 4

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Original post by sophiexm

Hiya I apologise for not making this more clearer. I am obviously taking my GCSE's. In college i would be doing an Extended BTEC Level 3 Diploma. Does this get me the same access (as well as the equivalent A levels i need) as a 'national diploma' as both are confusing me. I just wondered if I could still get into univeristy studying a nursing course based on if I get my diploma out of this. I wanted to study children nursing to be a paediatric nurse. I read before on here how it's important to have to work experince alongside the knowledge which I would be getting.

Thank you

If it's a BTEC (which is sounds like it is) then the Extended Diploma is what you want. That means it's the equivalent of three A levels. There are other "sizes" of BTEC, with horribly similar names and it's easy to get confused. For example, there is also:
Extended Certificate (worth 1 A level)
Diploma (worth 2 A levels)

There are other sizes too - but these are the main ones. So as long as you're doing an Extended Diploma, and it's a Level 3 BTEC, then you'll be absolutely fine. And yes, the experience will certainly help.