Parents’ evening presentation

Choices available Higher education. Apprenticeships and traineeships. Studying abroad. Gap year. Getting a job. Understand the options available at www.ucas.com/alternatives Apprenticeships give you the opportunity to work for an employer, earn a salary and gain a qualification at the same time. Traineeships provide essential training to prepare for work and gain skills to help you get an apprenticeship or a job. For more information see: www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/getting-started/what-study/apprenticeships-traineeships-and-school-leaver

Apprenticeships advice UCAS has launched apprenticeships advice to help students make informed decisions about their post-16 and post-18 opportunities. Find out about: the different types of apprenticeships how to find and apply for apprenticeships preparing for the application and interview process With the predicted growth of higher and degree Apprenticeships you’ll also find a dedicated degree and professional apprenticeships section on ucas.com which profiles current programmes in more detail.  

Why higher education? Opportunities while studying: chance to study a subject they are passionate about achieve a qualification that could lead to their chosen career gain confidence, independence, and important life skills that will widen their prospects make lifelong friends With a degree: the opportunity to follow their career path better job prospects many employers target graduates higher earning potential

Researching courses Your son or daughter can use the UCAS search tool at search.ucas.com. As a school we are also using the service UNIFROG. Key features include: mobile-friendly design  advanced filtering and sorting options  ability to shortlist and save course searches  free text search  suggestions for misspelt searches

Apply key facts Application is entirely online. Maximum of five choices. Simple application cost: one choice – £18 two to five choices – £24 Equal consideration if deadlines are met. Invisibility – universities cannot see where else someone has applied. Equal consideration – this means that if you meet the published deadlines then a provider must consider your application. Applications received after the deadlines will still be forwarded to universities and colleges, providing they have vacancies, but they are not obliged to consider them. We send the application on to each of the chosen universities and colleges at the same time. Each university or college has access to the information about their choice only. They must not ask you to reveal your other choices. This is what we call invisibility. Only much later in the application cycle, when you have received decisions on all your choices and replied to any offers, will each university or college be able to see details of the other choices. This ensures that each university or college decides independently whether to offer a place and what conditions, if any, to attach to an offer. You do not need to rank your choices in order.

When to apply 12th October – Students to have completed personal information in UCAS apply. 9th November – Students to have completed final draft for personal statement. 16th November – All UCAS applications to be completed. After this date places at Universities will start to be given out to applicants. The later the application is complete the less places on offer. 15th January (18:00 UK time) – deadline for the majority of undergraduate courses. 30 June (18:00 UK time) – last date to submit an application before Clearing. Applications received after deadlines will still be forwarded to universities and colleges, providing they have vacancies, but they are not obliged to consider them.

The personal statement The only section your son or daughter has control over. Their only chance to market themselves individually. One personal statement for all choices. Max. 4,000 characters, 47 lines. Min. 1,000 characters. Students have all been allocated a TUTORIAL group to work with experienced Staff. Attendance is mandatory.

Decisions and replies Provider decisions: unsuccessful unconditional offer conditional offer – qualifications and achievements and/or UCAS Tariff points Once all decisions are received, they can hold up to two offers: one as their firm choice one as their insurance choice (if they want to) all other offers are declined Track will show their reply date.

Other options Extra (25 Feb – 4 July) If all five choices have been used and they have no offers/rejected all offers. Clearing (from early July) If there are no offers, or have applied after 30 June deadline. Adjustment (from A level results day) If they’ve gained better results than the conditional offer they hold, they could apply for a different course or university.

What should your son/daughter should be doing now? Extracurricular activities Work experience Work on your personal statement Go beyond the syllabus Focus on this year’s studies Attend tutorial sessions during registration.

How can you support them? Use the parents/guardians’ section of the UCAS website – www.ucas.com/parents – and sign up for the newsletter. Support your son/daughter’s management of their application. Help them to decide what course to study using UNIFROG. Give them guidance toward their personal statement. Contact myself or Mrs Morgan. Contact details to follow.

UCAS Customer Experience Centre 0371 468 0468 Monday to Friday, 08:30 – 18:00 (UK time) Contact us: Huw.Morris@tcs.cymru or Vicky.Morgan@tcs.cymru. Follow us @TonSeniorSchool