Can you be successful without GCSE'S

Speaking as a Teacher. Absolutely. The only limits on someones potential are the limits they place upon themselves.

I think in today's society it is a lot more difficult than it was. With the greater number of school children leaving school with at least one qualification there is also less and less instances of this.

For instance, my Dad went on to be very successful after initially leaving school with no qualifications. But this is over the past 40 years or so. In the next 40 years I think the same story would be a lot more difficult.
 
You can be successful without GCSEs although that will depend on what you class as successful and also what you want to do - certain careers will be denied to you without a particular set of qualifications. It's not an impossibility to do well without much in the way of qualifications but you're almost certainly making it harder on yourself and it's worth remembering that the people who do very well without any sort of qualifications tend to be the exception rather than the rule.
 
I have nothing against my name... Passed my GCSE's but only once at grade C.

I have a couple of City and Guild math qualifications, but they were gained from dropping out of college.

I have worked bloody hard to get where I am, and it has paid off. 9 times out of 10, a company will worship experience over qualification. I am 22 and am competing against people the same age with a years max of experience, when I have been doing my line of work for 5+ years. I know all the main systems, how to work in a office, layout of staff and the basics.

It has paid off I would say, sure I missed out on the uni experience, but tbh, I am 22, no debt (apart from a stupid loan that I took... £3k owed :() earning £26k+ and am considered experienced in my field of work. By the age of 30 I should be sitting very nicely in life... Just took some hard work, but that's something I enjoy :) A challenge.

ags
 
OP - Yes, depending on WHY you don't have any GCSEs. In my case I was in the top classes for nearly everything, predicted As and Bs - but school bored me to tears and thus I never went from about half way through year 10. If you accept that you can learn outside of a classroom then you're good (obviously depending on what career you're pursuing). But if you're looking to go to college - You'll probably start a year before A Level to get the grades needed to move up.

Maybe you could get an apprenticeship for a few years and do one of those accel(?) courses that get you into uni, assuming that's the route you want to take.

Obviously if you're looking to be a doctor, you need formal education, but for say... a career in computing - there's no limit to what you can learn without formal education, and I suggest you get cracking :)

Have a look for 'apprenticeship' on totaljobs - apply for them. Get dat money mang and do night courses for server OSs/networking, etc... whatever you're interested in learning. You'll get quals and experience at the same time

edit: you just mentioned you were on a level 3 IT course... GCSEs shouldn't matter if you have a higher qual

anant_shah94 said:
Well, looking at it from another angle:

The really good paying jobs are things like lawyers, bankers, doctors (eventually!). At the other end you have jobs like cleaning.

The former require a lot of knowledge, and most likely a university degree. The latter doesn't. To get a university degree you need A levels. Without GCSE's you'll struggle to get A levels
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Well there are more options than lawyer to cleaner...
 
Castiel said:
All you need to be successful in life is determination, application, hard work, a good positive attitude and a little luck.

You do not need qualifications for those things.
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I would agree that that is the foundation to be successful, if you go self employed. If you go to work for others then due to fair employment laws you will need qualifications, other wise you will always be on the back foot to others with them. The larger the company the more it will apply due to point systems and indifferences.
 
ChroniC said:
No they do not, like they have time or money to do that. (maybe in canada they have a centralised database)
I dont think there even is a central database for gcse's and A levels is there in the UK is there. (unless you pay, and business can't be ****** with that)
Half the time employers don't even bother to phone your references. :)
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My current employer phoned my references, especially the two most recent ones.

So yes, they do phone references
 
Yes you can be successful. I've got one O level and one GCSE, left school at 16, no college or apprenticeship. 3 years at Sainsburys, 7 years for a local authority and 7 years for the private sector. Had my own business for the last two years and things are going very well. I have friends with degrees (in some cases 2 degrees) who haven't achieved half of what I have.

Its all down to hard graft, planning ahead, setting yourself goals and no small amount of luck in my case.
 
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I would imagine your best bet of making money without qualifications would be in starting your own business. This normally requires patience, insight, hard work and determination rather than qualifications.

It'll be much harder to be successful in the traditional sense of getting a good job with a major company however.
 
Once I finish my college course apparently I will have 2 A levels, what can I really do with that? bare in mind I don't have english or maths :mad:

Is that enough for decent apprenticeships etc?
 
You can be successful without GCSEs but it will be prohibitively more difficult. GCSEs are part of the national curriculum anyway so I am confused as to how people can skip them, short of dropping out for god knows why.

I'd probably go as far as to say it practically makes you unemployable short of mundane factory work.
 
Absolutely.

My brother got very poor GCSE results and left school at 16.
He got an apprenticeship with a local engineering firm where he really started to excel and showed his potential.
They funded his part time engineering degree which he is finishing next year.

He's now 23, earning almost £40k a year and he's expecting to get a large pay rise when he has his degree next year. He's even been offered a high paid job in the U.S where he often travels for work.

It's interesting because all of his friends who did very well in school and went straight into higher education are seriously struggling to find jobs or have dropped out altogether. Whereas my brother, who really struggled at school, now has a house, drives around in an Audi RS4 and has a great job.
He's probably 10+ years ahead of them and I have no doubt he'll end up being more successful. It's rare to find somebody with 8 years work experience and a degree at the age of 23.
Sometimes people only show their real potential when they actually start work.
 
Yes, GCSEs test your academic abilities and it isn't always these that are needed to be successful. You may be good at strategy or have some unique idea. Of course music or acting are possibilities along with professional sports, as a more modern example I believe Robbie Williams never achieved any GCSEs :)
 
I'd say its easy enough to be successful at your age, I'm nineteen now and working full time in an apprenticeship and compared to half the priveleged kids from the school I went to (who all remain limitlessly high without jobs and scarcely bother going to college anymore) I'd say i'm doing pretty well. Just set yourself a goal and try to find a company or a profession you'd like to get into, Be confident at the interviews and show a genuine interest to advance, just don't look too cocky. If you need a cv booster do some temporary work, anything where you're handling customers and preferably retail, these have more transferable skills. GCSE's aren't a necessity, I'd agree with sh4rk in saying that determination is a large factor.
 
Castiel said:
All you need to be successful in life is determination, application, hard work, a good positive attitude and a little luck.

You do not need qualifications for those things.
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And iif you have all those attributes then getting good exam grades is easy
 
My view is GCSE's are the foundation and building blocks in order to open more doors in life. I heard of people who didnt have a single GCSE to there name and started there own company and make a healthy living. But on the otherhand ive seen people who have no GCSE's and really couldnt give a toss.

All swings and roundabouts on how determind you are and how lucky you get. But having GCSE's is a requirment for many companies.
 
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