Following last week’s A-level results, today saw the big announcement for GCSE students with the great news being that the pass rate has gone up for the 23rd year running.

Even better news is that nearly one in four (23.2%) of entries scored at least an A grade this year, up from 22.6% in 2010, and nearly seven in 10 entries (69.8%) were awarded a C or above. These are of course marvellous achievements and were publically praised by Nick Gibb, Minister of State for School, who produced this YouTube video to celebrate the occasion.

With the continual rise in achievement, there will no doubt be a lot of happy youngsters up and down the country today, contemplating the career choices that lie ahead of them. As Nick says in his video; ‘gaining GCSE passes is a tremendous achievement and is key to moving on to the next stage.’

And with Nick also revealing a huge uptake in math and single sciences, we’re hoping for a generation of manufacturing magicians. The results speak for themselves with chemistry and physics both up over 16% and the most popular subject by far, information and communications technology, increased by 18.8%. 

Jim Sinclair, director of the JCQ summed things up by saying: "The rise of biology, physics and chemistry is welcome news as is the increased performance in maths and English.”
English, maths and science are absolute core subjects and the foundations for building a successful future. In manufacturing, these areas are particularly important and no doubt all these talented youngsters will be wondering how they can further what they’ve already achieved.

The natural course of action for many will be full-time college but we, and many others, recommend exploring every avenue, one of which is apprenticeships. An apprenticeship offers the best of both worlds – education and qualifications whilst learning, and earning, on the job.

Out of the classroom and into the workplace, an apprenticeship is the start of a fantastic journey that sees many sponsored by their employer to not only complete college, but also higher education.

So if your GCSE results were better than expected but you’re still not sure A-Levels are for you or perhaps your grades weren’t quite what you’d been hoping for and you’d like to find out what your options are, contact us now to learn more about apprenticeships.  We are here to help.