My advice for parents of teenagers applying for a Last Minute Place

Meet Denise

Denise is a local mum of three, whose eldest son, Jake, was soon to be finishing his GCSEs. Denise tells us how she found the Coventry College Last Minute Place application and enrolment process, and how she helped her son to secure a place – in less than two weeks!

For many young learners, their high school years can be a whirlwind of growth, enlightenment and stress. And as a parent, with my eldest about to leave school, I found the last year just as difficult – but in a much different way.

After speaking to some of my “mum friends” with slightly older children; I wanted to let my son, Jake, take the lead in deciding what he wanted to do once he had finished school and encouraged him to make the application himself. It’s his life after all.

I told Jake that I would help him if he asked, but I wouldn’t spend the next few months nagging him to make any decisions. Only a few weeks into Year 11 Jake told me that he had decided to stay at school with his friends and move up to their Sixth Form, where he had chosen to study maths, chemistry, physics, and biology A Levels.

Last Minute Places at Coventry

It wasn’t until about two weeks before he was about to start at Sixth Form that he came to me in a panic, saying that A Levels wasn’t what he wanted to be doing.

Jake has always had a keen interest in science but after reading more about the curriculum and speaking to friends, that he realised that A levels weren’t the right fit for him. He wanted to be learning more specifically about forensic science.

I was no wiser than him about what the best option would be at this point, and if it was even possible to change what he wanted to do at such a late date. Naturally I started searching online trying to find advice for parents of teenagers who have left their college application to the last minute. We also spoke to Jake’s school teachers to see what options they knew would be available, knowing that none of the Sixth Forms in Coventry would be appropriate, they suggested that we looked at the different Coventry colleges.

It was this point that we started to explore Coventry College and found all of the information that we wanted on the website, specifically on the Last Minute Places page, which is exactly what we needed! We spoke to a member of staff at the College to find out what was available and, after a short conversation with Jake about his interests, they were able to suggest the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Forensic and Criminal Investigation.

The Last Minute Place application process was so easy! We filled in a form online and selected a date for Jake to go into college during their enrolment week – in less than an hour! He attended his enrolment slot on his own, but he said that the College were really helpful from start to finish. A member of staff at the College sat with him and explained all of his options, went through the course details with him to make sure that it was best suited, and then completed his full application and enrolled him onto the course ready for September.

Although it was all a bit of a rush, with the College’s help we manged to get Jake into a place on a course that he wanted to study, in less than two weeks! Jake is about to go into his second year on the course and couldn’t be happier.