School Education
At age of 16 the students typically take exams for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) or other equivalent qualifications. While education is compulsory until 18, school is only compulsory to 16, thus post-16 education can take a number of forms, and may be academic or vocational. This can involve continued schooling, known as “sixth form” or “college”, leading (typically after two years of further study) to A-level qualifications (similar to a high school diploma in some other countries), or a number of alternative qualifications such as BTEC, the International Baccalaureate or the Cambridge Pre-U. It can also include work-based apprenticeships or traineeship. A-Levels are recognised by many universities as the standard for assessing the suitability of applicants for admission in the UK. Many universities base their admission offers on a student’s predicted A-level results, with the majority of these offers being conditional on achieving a minimum set of final grades.
At age of 16 the students typically take exams for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) or other equivalent qualifications. While education is compulsory until 18, school is only compulsory to 16, thus post-16 education can take a number of forms, and may be academic or vocational. This can involve continued schooling, known as “sixth form” or “college”, leading (typically after two years of further study) to A-level qualifications (similar to a high school diploma in some other countries), or a number of alternative qualifications such as BTEC, the International Baccalaureate or the Cambridge Pre-U. It can also include work-based apprenticeships or traineeship. A-Levels are recognised by many universities as the standard for assessing the suitability of applicants for admission in the UK. Many universities base their admission offers on a student’s predicted A-level results, with the majority of these offers being conditional on achieving a minimum set of final grades.