beyond school
Study and training
Still not sure
Lots of young people are unclear about what they want to do. They cannot decide whether they want to leave school to start work, or even run their own business, or go to college or university.
If your child is still at the stage of looking for ideas about what to do after school, the following sites are a good starting point.
- Has your child talked over the matter with their personal adviser on the Connexions scheme? Check with your school, or visit www.connexions.gov.uk
- Get your child to sit down and look through newspapers and magazines in areas of work that really interest them – web design, music, art, TV – whatever. Taking that as a starting point, find out more about specific jobs and start e-mailing or writing to ask about unpaid work, the best places to train or the skills needed.
- Visit www.hobsons.co.uk and click on education for ideas about undergraduate courses all around the world. It's a very inspiring site that will give your child a few ideas.
It is still possible to go to college and 'keep your options open', but increasingly the expectation is that young people will have a more focused approach to their study than this. They will certainly be expected to have a pretty watertight answer to the question, 'Why are you applying for this course?'
Finding the right course
If your son or daughter knows which subject they want to study, www.ucas.co.uk has an excellent search facility which provides access to every course offered across the country, which can be sorted into regions so that young people can select a university or college as close to (or as far away from) home as they wish. For a more generalised search check out www.unisearch.info.
Finding the right college or university
The course is obviously an important consideration in choosing a particular college or university. However, your son or daughter will also want to know what it is really like to study there.
A good starting point for finding out more about what places are really like would be to phone or write to the Student Union for the Alternative Prospectus, produced in many colleges. Also, a must-visit site is www.push.co.uk for hard-hitting reviews of every university in the country.
Getting in
The UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) form is a comprehensive application form for up to six colleges or institutes. It is completed with the help of your child's careers advisor and is submitted between September and mid-December (October for Oxbridge).
The form is sent to UCAS, who acknowledges it and forwards it to the appropriate college or university.
The college or university will write back directly with an offer or a rejection. The offer might be 'unconditional' – your child has a guaranteed place. However, a 'conditional' offer of a place is much more likely. Here the college or university will specify the required results.
Alternatively, they may invite your child to an interview, to help the college or university to decide.
Accepting the offer and stating preferences can be quite a difficult decision as the reality of spending three years at possibly an unknown college or university, possibly away from home, begins to dawn.
Encourage your child to visit the college or university on an open day, separately from an interview, and without you tagging along!
Interviews and other hurdles
- Watch how well your child is handling stress and make sure that plenty of time is spent away from the decision-making arena.
- Stock answers, well rehearsed, are often useful for the first minute or two of an interview. Your son or daughter should have prepared answers to, "Why do you want to take this course?" and "Why do you think you'd like to come here?"
- Don't prepare hundreds of answers, but try to get your child to bring to mind anecdotal evidence about aspects of their study they have enjoyed so far.
- Tell them to enjoy the interview and above all, to be themselves.
- Take responsibility to ensure they arrive on time and unflustered.
- Don't quiz them mercilessly after the interview.
- For potential Oxbridge candidates, there is a training company that assists candidates. For more information, visit www.applicationresearch.co.uk
Funds and grants
Going to college or university isn't cheap. So the first thing you and your child need to do is to tot up all the costs of tuition fees, accommodation and living expenses in the area they plan to study.
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