What to do after A-levels? Your career, training and study options

Can’t decide what to do after A-levels? Choosing between getting a job or training, study and further education? Here are some options to explore.

Once A-Levels Results Day is done and dusted you are free to try something new. Remember, you are more than your grades. Explore your options, from university to sponsored degrees, school leaver programmes and higher apprenticeships!

Post A-level Options:

Get a job | Get FREE skills training | Be your own boss | Apprenticeships | Further education | School Leaver Programmes | University

Getting a job after A Levels

Once you’ve completed your A-levels (or an equivalent qualification like a BTEC), you could go straight into employment. Remember that in England, you have to be in education or training until you are 18, but in other UK countries this age is 16.

Visit our Careers Advice Hub for all kinds of routes to get the jobs you want. Check our career guides for career ideas and job and employment trends so you can see which industries are desperate for young people like you, and so much more.

Get FREE Young Professional Skills Training

If you’re ready to start job hunting, a great first step is to become a Young Professional with Youth Employment UK. You can use the free online course to build your skills and think about your aspirations, whatever it is you want to. All you have to do is log in to get access to all of the courses.

Starting your own business after A Levels

Have you got a great business idea you think could be a success? It’s often a good idea to build some life and work experience so you can experience the business side of things before you take the leap. However, there are plenty of young entrepreneurs out there. Building a business idea is also something you can do while working or training – it doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

Doing an apprenticeship after A Levels

DID YOU KNOW? You can still do an apprenticeship if you’ve done your A-levels.

An apprenticeship could be a good next step for you if you want to earn and learn at the same time. You’ll get training (resulting in an industry-recognised qualification) while earning a salary and getting real-life work experience on your CV. You can study from Level 2, all the way up to Level 6&7 (degree level – yes, you can get a degree for free!).

School Leaver Programmes after A Levels

All kinds of school leaver programmes (and traineeships) are available once you’ve finished Level 3 qualifications such as A-levels. Essentially school leaver programmes are a paid training scheme. You’ll work with an employer for a salary, building life and work skills (and the contents of your bank account). You’ll also train towards a qualification, usually a professional vocational qualification that is relevant to your career.

School leaver programmes can vary widely in what exactly they offer in terms of paid training. Some employers refer to their higher apprenticeships and sponsored degrees as school leaver programmes. You can check on an employer’s career website to see their range of school leaver programmes available and decide which is a best fit for your current level of study and experience.

Further Education and College

Once you’ve left school you can take on further education (often called FE) in college. You can study for vocational and competency-based qualifications including awards, certificates and diplomas. These are all industry-recognised qualifications and they are awarded by organisations like City and Guilds, Edexcel (BTEC) and OCR. You can also do higher education (HE) qualifications like HNCs, HNDs, or foundation degrees.

If you want to get into an industry, further education can be a great way to get the skills and knowledge along with a valid qualification, and you can often build real-life experience and relationships with employers too, because many courses offer work placements.

Whether you’re interested in business, technology, engineering, sales and marketing, construction, retail, law or pretty much anything else, there’s likely to be a further education course that will take your career to the next step.

University and Degrees after A Levels

You may decide that university is the best next step for you. You can apply for a range of degrees that best suit your interests and level of learning. For example, you can apply for foundation degrees to give you a strong grounding in a particular academic or professional area. You can study for a BA (arts) or BSc (science) degree and decide whether you want to go on to do a masters or perhaps look for jobs or graduate programmes offered by employers once you graduate.

If you do study for a degree, you will need to research location, student fees and the degree modules carefully to find the best fit for you. You will also need to consider entry requirements, to ensure you have studied relevant topics at school and achieved qualifications at a grade which meets entry requirements.

Remember, you are more than your grades. If A-level Results Day didn’t bring you the results you expected or hoped for to get you into your first choice of universities, you can still explore clearing options. You can also explore alternative routes like sponsored degrees or higher apprenticeships.

Some degrees are designed to be a strong launching pad for your entry into a particular career. You can often explore summer work placements with employers while you study, or research sandwich degrees which last a little longer but give you a year of paid work, experience, skills development and relationship building with particular employers.