Alternative routes to Uni

I am very aware that the decision to come to Uni is not as straight forward as lots of us are lead to believe. This is how I took perhaps the more unconventional route to uni and made the decision to make my biggest life change yet.

Uni was always in the back of my mind. I attended two great schools which encouraged those who worked hard and did well down the uni route. Alternatives for after GCSE’s in high achieving schools are not often discussed, and as someone who worked really hard to do well I defiantly felt the pressure to conform to this. Also as a fairly normal teenager I didn’t want to break away from the norm of what everyone else was doing, therefore other options didn’t even cross my mind.

It wasn’t until I joined sixth form that honestly, I panicked. I felt that since GCSE’s I didn’t know what I wanted to do in life, which resulted in me picking random a levels that I didn’t enjoy. I had it in my head that the broader the better, when really, I think this just over complicated things, and was not the best option for me.

After a turbulent year with the subjects I constant worrying, I made the difficult decision to leave sixth form. This was extremely hard as I had worked for grades that I could easily continue with to second year, however I decided that the stress it took to get those results was not worth it. It was also terrifying to for the first time not be in a typical school environment, with friends I knew and liked, and the routines I was so used to.

I know that for lots of people going to college is not a big deal. I think that for me, in the education bubble I had been in this was not really that normal and was even somewhat frowned upon. People assumed that if you attended college instead of sixth form, you didn’t work hard, or achieve as well as everyone else. I was defiantly guilty of believing this as well, until I started to challenge why I thought this, and why going to college couldn’t simply be a valid choice.

With lots of support and encouragement from my friends and family I made the decision to move to do a college BETEC. I concluded that the stress I was putting myself under wasn’t sustainable, and that maybe I just wasn’t able to cope like some others where. Part of the reason I also felt compelled to leave was the decisions about uni of any other post 18 options coming up too soon. I had no idea what I wanted to do yet, and as I was always planning on taking some kind of gap year, an extra year in college, doing a less intense course than sixth form, felt like a good time filler.

Little did I know that the two years in college would actually give me the confidence and skills I needed to make the jump to uni. for some people sixth form is what gives them that confidence, however it just wasn’t for me. I started a Fashion course, which I know sounds very specific for someone who had no idea what they wanted to do. Surprisingly it was doing a more specific course, and the initially panic of ‘this isn’t what I want to do’ and ‘I don’t want to feel restricted to this area for the rest of my life!’ that made me realise that it didn’t matter. For the first time I started looking at how the uni system worked and realized that it can be an opportunity to start something completely new, provided you have the grades and are interested in the course.

I quickly knew that I didn’t want to be a fashion designer but looked at the course as a way of further developing my creative skills, which was perhaps the only thing that I saw in my working future. College gave me more of a focus, and helped me to look at things differently, and not feel so rushed or pressured to make such a big decision. For lots of people college often leads to not going to university, but for me it did the opposite. I was strongly encouraged to look into a wide variety of courses. My tutor was great and helped me realise that although I love being creative, I have always 

had an academic side which I needed to grasp. I started looking at courses that combined both of these, and eventually found the course I chose Fashion communications and promotion.

To do an apprenticeship I feel you almost need to know what you want to do a lot more than someone going to uni. Apprenticeships are training in a specific field, and often lead to jobs within them, personally I wasn’t ready for this. There was still so much I wanted to learn and explore. I saw the course as a basis for such a wide variety of potential careers and was drawn to the broad opportunities uni could give me.

Being at college and joining somewhere were I knew no one for the first time, also gave me the confidence that I was lacking.  College also meant that I had a lot more time to work and experience life outside of the bubble of school life that I honestly believe most of us our in since the age of four. Don’t get me wrong, first joining college, and working was scary and hard to adjust to, but I really believe that it is why I ended up going to uni. If I had continued in sixth form, and kept following the normal route, I’m not sure I would have made it to uni. Personally I wasn’t ready, and school alone was not going to equipped someone as anxious as me for such a big change.

Like I said the stereotypical route to uni of; school, GCSE’S and A levels definitely works for some, and I was 100% the model student for this system. However sometimes you have to be able to know when something isn’t working for you, and be brave enough to take a different path. Even though I did end up going to uni, and taking the same route as my friends, without this detour I’m certain I would not have ended up as happy and content as I am today.