Officer Direct Entry - Qualifications

Hello all,

I've had a quick look through and not seen anything relating to this so I thought I would ask. I'm doing my AS levels this year and hope to head to Dartmouth after I finish. So, first of all are two A levels required, or are 180 UCAS points accepted alternatively. For example, if I picked up 180 UCAS points through my AS levels and current vocational qualifications would the Navy accept me or require me to also do the respective A levels. Also, as a Welsh student I am currently doing the Welsh Baccalaureate. It's a new qualification and I was wondering if it was accepted by the Navy, as currently some universities don't accept it.

Cheers

 

Welcome.

If you are doing A Levels, the service will want to know why you didn't take them to A2 in at least some subjects. AS Levels, in isolation, are only accepted when passed at Grade B or better, and not taken at A2.

With regards the Baccalaureate, they may be accepted (subject to confirmation/verification at AIB) towards the UCAS requirement.

The tip? If you want to be an Officer, at least finish sixth form.

The other slightly controversial issue is Welsh education frequently lets the student down in areas where English is taught as a secondary language rather than as one of the 'three Rs'. We see a significant number of Welsh students applying with good GCSE grades including Welsh, but falling short with regard the GCSE English requirement and the level required to pass the recruit test literacy section. This is simply because the subject is side-lined, much the same as other language subjects such as French, German, Spanish, etc., elsewhere in UK.

 

I work as a teacher at the minute and I'm hoping to escape the classroom as a TMO.

The Welsh Baccalaureate is not a brilliant qualification. It lays emphasis on vague generic "skills" (e.g. teamwork) over real, hard-won and applicable knowledge (e.g. science, maths and languages). Although it brings UCAS points (which many universities including Oxford, where I've studied, ignore), universities do not automatically put it on an equal basis with an A-grade A-level in French, physics or maths. There's also some suggestion it causes students problems at University (cf. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18045621). Don't believe what illiterate teachers tell you about the Welsh Bac being as good, or better than A-levels. It's not. It's shit.

Any officer-level training has an intellectual element. The simple truth is that the more you've been stretched at school, the easier that will be. I think most officer-entrants are now graduates so you will be competing with people older than you with degrees and even masters' degrees. Oxbridge too. Finishing your A-levels will better prepare you for Dartmouth and any subsequent study. If the RN want you to do a degree in-service (which is likely), then you will probably need A-levels to do that. Only Scotch universities take students with only AS-levels and that country's main exports are oil and Scotch.

There's another side to this. You might not get past AIB or Dartmouth. You need something to fall back on. A-levels are the ticket to University if you want to go.

The final point about finishing your A-levels is that the minimum is a minimum. Again, many candidates will have degrees, experience and more. Don't shoot yourself in the foot before you start running.

 

Alright, cheers for the replies. I do hope to finish get a few A levels, only thing is that I am only doing two (One of which I hope to not do next year) and the Welsh Baccalaureate, our teachers have been saying it's a must have if you even want to consider university and was considered equal to an A level, but then again they seem to hardly know anything about it past the powerpoints they are given

 

The Welsh education system has been shit for many years.
Rather than rectify the situation the Welsh government are trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes by setting a new examination.
On tother hand the Jocks have always had a better system than the English, come to think of it their Legal system is better as well