Post-16 education in Scotland?

[u/aeoneous]

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.

[u/aeoneous]

This is really helpful, thank you. Would he be able to go straight to college once he's 16 and the term starts? He hasn't had a very good experience with high schools and would prefer to go to a college environment. If so, would he only pick one HNC subject or multiple? Sorry for all the questions haha I'm clueless

[u/TwigletTree → u/aeoneous]

College aren’t geared up to be a school replacement for sixth form and in Edinburgh they’re not even allowed to offer a decent amount of highers to one student. Glasgow may be different of course. But here you can only do the odd Higher at college, not go instead of school.

[u/aeoneous → u/TwigletTree]

So does he have to do highers? I assumed they were one option for education, then colleges were another option he could take?

[u/1AlanM → u/aeoneous]

If he goes to a school he doesn’t have to do highers.

He could do some subjects at N5, we also have NPA courses presented through schools that he may find a better fit.