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Parents, carers and supporters

Helping you to support your learner in their Higher Education options

Here at LSBU, we know that parents, guardians and carers play a key role in helping young people make decisions about their future. We want to give you the information you need so that you can support them to make informed choices about their future and help them with their next steps. These pages will provide you with the essential information to make sure that you can provide real support to your young person as they consider their options after school or college.

Introduction

Higher Education is the level of education that people enter after they have completed Level 3 courses such as A-Levels, T-Levels, BTEC National Extended Diplomas etc. Higher Education includes university, higher education in a Further Education college or specialist college, and degree apprenticeships.

If it is the first course that the student is applying for at university, you need to look for information for “undergraduates” – this is what all students who have not completed their first course at university are called. They are usually undergraduates for the first three (or sometimes four) years that they spend at university. The course that they are studying is called a “degree”. Once they have successfully completed and gained a qualification in their degree course, they then become Graduates – and if they want to continue their studies, they then look for postgraduate courses.

We recognise that university is just one of the choices available after completing school, Sixth Form or Further Education (FE) college. Other options include:

Apprenticeships

Apprentices are paid employees who study while they are working. Most apprenticeships involve on the-job training combined with some classroom-based lessons so that apprentices gain experience and learn the skills they need to work in the industry they have chosen.

Degree apprenticeships

These are apprenticeships which allow people to achieve a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree while gaining work experience. Your young person would be a paid employee while on the programme, but they would spend part of their time at university. This scheme is quite new and becoming more and more popular, so it is likely that the number of vacancies will grow over the next few years. You can find out more about Degree Apprenticeships at LSBU here.

Employment

Some students decide to go straight into employment. This could help build their confidence, develop their CV and provide them with professional and business networking opportunities.

Taking a gap year

Some young people choose to take a break after completing their final year of school or college to travel, work or volunteer. If your student is thinking of doing this, but has plans to go to university eventually, they can still apply in their final year and then delay their start date by a year. This is called deferred entry and you can find out more about it on the UCAS website.

If your young person is interested in going on to university, there are plenty of reasons why it might be a good pathway for them:

University graduates tend to earn higher salaries and have higher status jobs than non-graduates.
A university degree is necessary for certain professional careers, but don’t forget that that 60% of graduate job opportunities are open to graduates from any discipline, which means that you do not need a degree in a specific subject to enter them.
The university experience will help them to become more independent and mature through taking control of their own learning, living and socialising.
The experience is likely to help them make new friends outside their usual circle. This can grow their confidence and expand their social network, which can in turn assist when they are looking at future careers.
They will get an opportunity to explore passions, hobbies and skills outside of the classroom and find new things they enjoy doing.
Finally, university provides a unique opportunity for young people to learn from experts, explore new interests and find out more about themselves and what they are good at and enjoy.

It’s never too early to start exploring the idea of going to university. Chat to your learner about things that they enjoy and how they could explore these subjects further.

Talk to them about all the different jobs that family, friends and neighbours are doing. Speak about people who have been to university – either people that you know or well-known people who are on your learner’s radar e.g. authors that they enjoy, or sports professionals that they follow.

Encourage them to be curious and to research local universities and who are their famous former students – these are called their Alumni. Research universities near your home and pop into an Open Day to have a tour of the sports facilities and specialist facilities. Speak to the Careers Lead at school, or college, about trips that they are planning to visit universities, and when universities are coming to give assemblies.

All of these activities will help your learner feel confident that university is an option open to them and that they are knowledgeable about where university can lead.

At LSBU we’re here to help you and your learner every step of the way. So, we’ve created these handy guides for you to refer to throughout their different stages of education.

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Parents, carers and supporters

What are the options when they finish school or college?

Why consider Uni?

So, how can I help them prepare for university?

Years 7–9 Pre-GCSEs

Years 10–11 GCSE years

Years 12-13 Post-GCSEs Sixth Form College

Support available to LSBU students

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