Education Feature – Vocational courses at City and Islington College: another way to secure your future
Published: August 18, 2011
CELEBRATE A-level results, but don’t forget the vocational students!
There will be tears of joy and maybe one or two of sadness this week as the long wait to receive their grades is finally over for many local A-level students. That small slip of paper with hopefully As and Bs printed on it will determine for many whether or not they have been successful in gaining a place at their chosen university or on that first rung of the career ladder.
However, for many students there is no specific results day. These are students who have worked just as hard on courses but are often overlooked; these are students on vocational courses.
Many stereotypes and myths surround vocational qualifications. It is often believed that such courses are at a lower level and are worth less than academic qualifications, but vocational qualifications can be studied at all levels and can lead directly on to many courses at university.
Statistics from City and Islington College back this up – in the last year over 1,200 of its students gained places at university with more than 60 per cent of those students doing so having gained qualifications other than A-levels.
Vocational courses are more suitable for many students as they contain a mixture of theory and practical experience that is valued by employers and universities alike.
The esteem in which such courses are held was evident earlier this year when Her Majesty the Queen visited City and Islington College’s Centre for Applied Sciences to unveil a plaque announcing it as the first college to be accredited by the National Skills Academy Process Industries as a Centre of Excellence for Biotechnology.
City and Islington College offers an extensive range of vocational and academic courses for both school leavers and adults in a wide number of subject areas including Sciences, Business, Arts, Technology, Healthcare, Social Care, Child Care, Hair and Beauty, Teacher Training, and Languages amongst others.
To find out more visit www.candi.ac.uk, email: courseinfo@candi.ac.uk or call 020 7700 9200. Open enrolment for many courses starts on September 1.