What If I Don't Get the Grades for Uni?

If you're reading this article, it's probably because you're worried about your A level results. Perhaps you're awaiting your final grades with a sense of dread...or perhaps you've already received them, and you haven't met the requirements of your conditional offer.

This is a tough blow, but you mustn't wait long to start thinking about what options remain before you now that your preferred university course is off the table. If you didn't get the grades required for your first choice uni, there are still several other routes you can take—it isn't the end of the world, even though it might feel like it.

If you didn't get the grades for uni, read on to find out what you can still do to provide yourself with a secure career and future prospects.

What to do if you didn't get the grades for uni

1. Contact your first choice
2. Try university clearing
3. Take a gap year
4. Find a job
5. Apply for an apprenticeship
6. Enrol at a private college

Contact your first choice.

Before you do anything else, be sure to contact your first-choice university (that is, if you still definitely want to go) and see how your grades have affected your offer.

It's certainly possible, and actually pretty common, for universities to accept students who narrowly missed their entry requirements.

It may be that you had a very strong interview, gave a great personal statement, provided an excellent example of your work, or were well liked by the tutors. If so, they might still let you in despite your grades falling short of expectations.

There'd be nothing worse than assuming that you'd lost your place having not achieved the required grades, going with your second choice...and then finding out that you could still have been accepted onto your preferred course.

Try university clearing.

Unfortunately, the likelihood is that your chosen university will reject you if you fail to achieve the grades they demanded.

If that's the case, this next option could be a lifesaver. If you aren't too concerned about which university you go to, but just want to get there at all costs, then you can try to secure a uni place through clearing.

University clearing pairs up students in need of a university with universities in need of students.

That is, if you didn't receive an offer from any of your five chosen universities, or find on results day that you didn't get the grades you needed, you might still have a second chance at getting in through this system—but it's no guarantee.

Take a gap year.

A gap year can be a very valuable experience, regardless of how your A levels went.

But that time off can be especially useful if you didn't get into university. A gap year gives you an opportunity to...

• Re-evaluate your options
• Begin the re-application process ready for next year
• Study and improve
• Become more experienced
• Mature and grow as a person

Whether you go spend the time travelling, working, saving money or learning, a gap year will provide the time and space needed to really think about what you want to do with your life.

You might come to the end of it and still not know what it is you want to do, but at least you'll be a more mature and dependable person and thus more capable of thriving in the adult world.

Find a job.

It's perfectly natural to feel impatient with education by now. After 13 years or so of schooling, you may well want to call it a day now that your A levels are in the rear-view mirror.

It might be that you were only going to university reluctantly, either to please your parents, or because that's what everybody else was doing, or maybe because you simply didn't know what else to do.

If that's the case, then not getting the right grades could actually be a golden opportunity: an opportunity to change your mind about uni and dive straight into the world of employment.

Becoming employed will give you a strong sense of maturity, and it's very refreshing not having to depend on your parents for money. It also teaches you how to properly look after money - when it's your own, you might be more reluctant to spend so much of it!

Apply for an apprenticeship.

Doing an apprenticeship can be a great way to start moving towards a successful and rewarding career.

You can choose from a wide range of qualifications, from intermediate apprenticeships (level 2) to diploma apprenticeships (level 6 and 7) in all sorts of different subjects, including law, engineering, defence, hair and beauty, trades and accounting.

Apprenticeships involve practical learning, which means you're learning on the job with hands-on skills. You also receive a salary while you're doing this, and so it's a great introduction into the world of employment that teaches you valuable skills about how to handle your money.

Apprenticeships often end with employment opportunities and offer a promising, secure career.

Enrol at a private college.

Private colleges are the cream of the crop for finding a new career and employment opportunities.

Although they cost money, the investment is always worthwhile. The quality of learning and teaching is simply unparalleled, taking all the best features of other learning centres to create the ultimate learning machine.

Access Training is a private college that specialises in trades training. We combine the hands-on nature of apprenticeship-style learning with the theoretical study aspect of university-style learning to offer you the best of both worlds.

Whereas apprenticeships and university courses take a number of years to complete and come with strict entry requirements, courses at Access Training are fast-track courses, which take far less time to complete, meaning you can become an employed plumber, electrician or gas engineer and start earning a living much sooner than if you were to attend university or enrol on an apprenticeship scheme.

A tradesperson's career is secure, rewarding, and in extremely high demand, particularly in recent times. A growing population and rapidly expanding cities and towns, plus thousands of houses, hospitals, schools and buildings of all kinds need construction and maintenance.

If you didn't get the grades you needed to go to university, then fear not. Your future is secure at Access Training. If you think a career in trades would be suitable for you, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our course advisors. They will provide you with any information you will require.

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