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Learning and Earning

Education is really important - it increases your opportunities in life. You will have more options if you carry on in education and are more likely to get a job you would really like. Getting qualifications at school or college is so important because it makes it easier to get an interesting job that you enjoy later on. Whatever you decide to do with your future help is at hand.

Choices

For the first part of school life you are told what to study. When you are in Year 9 you are given a little bit more choice about the subjects you want to learn.

At the end of Year 11 when you're 16, you can legally leave school! But is the best option for you? Do you know what you want out of your working life? What qualifications, if any, do you need to be able to do it?

You options are:

• Stay on at school: You can stay on at your own school or you can move to another school with a sixth form.
• Go to a Further education (FE) college: FE colleges offer a wide range of courses for students of all ages.
• Get a job with training: You can get a job which allows you to spend time studying for work related qualifications. There are loads of schemes to help you start earning money and still be training for a nationally accredited qualification.
• Full time employment: You could just go out and get a full-time job. The benefit is that you earn more money than just part-time employment / training schemes. But think about your future - if you want to change directions later on in life, will you have the basic qualifications to be able to do this easily?

Help is at hand

We've got lots of information and advice for you here in this section to help you make the right choice when it comes to learning and earning. Find out more about Connexions, a service that offers advice, information and personal help to all 13 to 19 year olds (and up to 25 with learning needs). Connexions works with many different services to help you with anything from careers and education, youth services, housing, health and more.