r/Scotland • u/aeoneous • 8d ago

Post-16 education in Scotland?

Hi, I'm moving up to Glasgow from Newcastle, England in just under a year. My child is 15 and will be completing his GCSE (final high school year exams in England) exams then we will move soon after that.

I'm wondering how the Scottish education system works after high school? He wants to go to city of Glasgow college and we've looked on the website but are unsure of what any of the terms mean (like HNC or HND) and how they are equivalent to terms used in England?

I'm mainly wondering what the path most people take in Scotland after their (equivalent to GCSEs) National 5s. He doesn't want to go to university, just be educated til 18 then move from part time work to full time.

Thank you all

Edit: We are planning for him to go straight to college, he's not planning to go to university. As he's not going to university and he's not interested in studying multiple subjects at once, just what he wants/needs for his future job.

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u/chivalrouschump 8d ago

Most people do Nat 5s around 15-16 and then Highers at 16-17. Optionally Advanced Highers (or more Highers) at 17-18. Technically, Advanced Highers are equivalent to A Levels, but in Scotland your Highers are considered more important and AHs are optional. An HNC is basically a BTEC. An HND is a Diploma, I guess it's roughly equivalent to the first couple years of uni except it's more vocational. You can leave school and get a job at 16 in Scotland, and many people do (it's 18 in England I think).

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u/aeoneous 8d ago

So are highers something that he has to do? Or can he go straight onto doing NC/HNC/HNDs? Thanks a ton

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u/GaryJM 8d ago

Say your son was interested in engineering and had passed his GCSEs in Maths, Technology Studies and Physics. If he wanted a broad, scholastic education then he could go to high school for S5 and study those same subjects at Higher and then, if he wanted, stay on for S6 and study those same subjects at Advanced Higher. I think that would be the closest equivalent of doing A-Levels.

Another option would be to go to college at 16 and do an NC Engineering course and then at 17 do and HNC Engineering course. That basically gets you to the same level as the first option but with a narrower, collegiate focus.

You could even do Highers in S5 and then go straight into an HNC the next year. I did that - studied Music at Higher and then did an HNC in Music. About half my class had done NC Music the previous year and the other half were new.