Are GCSE's important

[R tea]

Can remember me mate pissing about on the school bus and a 6th form lad saying to him to behave as he was acting a dick.
The argument went on for the 6th former to say he was going places and me mate would be a looser forever.
Said 6th form student is now fitting shoes in a farm store and me mate qualified as a plumber in prison.

 

[deutz.agrostar]

Agree, most learning is done at primary school. However I think (and in my case) GCSE's, A Levels etc are important, not in respect of subject or grade as such more as a life skill and personal development.

 

[John 1594]

One of our teachers, think he was woodwork or metal work, took a dislike to my mate, who was son of the local scrap merchant....told him, you will never do no good boy, your a waster and always will be just like your dad.....

Few years later he left teaching and set up his own business, flat roofing specialist

12 months later he went bust

Turns up at the scrappy, and asks my mate if he wants to buy some lead, as he has gone bust, and packing the job up

After the many fits of laughter subsided, my mate told him to f**k of out the yard, and enjoy being a waster the rest of your life.

 

[Blue.]

The most successful people I know left school with nothing,doesn't mean it's right.

Locally there seems to be a great deal of under achievers,I don't know why,it's just the way it is.

Certainly the most successful in our family left school without any GCSE's

 

[watfordfrosty]

I would add if you dont enjoy school but want to go to ag college at 16 not stay on and do A levels then 4 gcse's will get you onto the diploma course rather than the basic one,which from experience 2 sons gives you a good basic grounding in ag .

 

[FonterraFarmer]

Education and learning are not to be confused, education is merely conforming to a preconcieved standard, but learning is the process where an individual understands an issue,situation or problem thats in front of them.

 

[Drillman]

Whilst I agree that GCSEs arent the be all and end all, And plenty of people do well without them, I would think if your at school anyway, as far as I'm aware, you have to do them, so may as well do the best you can.

Yes you may not take education any further, but having a few GCSEs may open a few doors and does demonstrate an ability to learn.

Ps I apologise for the dodgy punctuation. I failed GCSE English!

 

[cooksey]

If your going to college to learn more then bloody hell yes! I didn't feel they were importantand had to waste a year doing a level 2 course full of people who knew nothing and frankly most were only there to fill time till for a year then claim unemployment! So get your Cs do well in college then possibly uni! But if you hate school college is a lot better!

 

[organicguy]

From experience I won't employ someone who does not have the brains to get 5 GCSEs. If they haven't got the motivation, they won't be much good anyway.

 

[Ducati899]

i don't know what they teach in schools these days but both apprentices I've had couldn't read or write!!!!neither could fill out a diary for their hours and at ag college they spent most of their days there doing english and maths as they'd failed it at school and to be honest they were not bothered if they ever pass it

 

[ARW]

they arent to important, if your a good sensible hand it wont hold you back.
However, you are there to do them so you should try your hardest (I nearly tried my hardest) its like washing a tractor, its a crap job but you may aswell do a proper job of it when you at it

 

[Gulli]

Yes they are. It's nothing to do with what you are doing subject wise, whether you are interested or not or if you have a job lined up already.
Later on they are pretty much meaningless, but its a step on to the next thing, its important to be able to learn and it's important to be able to try hard even if you don't think it's necessary.
If there was a young lad/girl after an apprenticeship or part time work they wouldn't get a second thought if their reason for not getting GCSE grades was that they didn't think it was important...

 

[multi power]

From experience I won't employ someone who does not have the brains to get 5 GCSEs. If they haven't got the motivation, they won't be much good anyway.

I don't have 5 GCSEs but that doesn't mean I don't have the brains to have got them IF I had wanted to, you could be surprised what I have the motivation to do

 

[sleepy]

I don't have 5 GCSEs but that doesn't mean I don't have the brains to have got them IF I had wanted to, you could be surprised what I have the motivation to do

But you don't have them so if you gave me a CV wanting a job and I didn't already know you I would assume you were a right thicko.
That's the problem.

 

[multi power]

About 90% of my teachers thought I was thick
The fact is they were the 90% who didn't have the skills to motivate me

 

[ACEngineering]

Reminds me of the front row of our class, all the intelligent ones, the ones who did everything they were supposed to, and more at times, had 100% attendance, played sports after school and represented it elsewhere

then ended up on the checkouts at tesco....

The back row, me, a few others, didnt really pay much attention, mucked about, had days off when we felt like it, played the teacher up merry hell and caused chaos where ever we went

at least 5 of us now run our own businesses....

Sounds familar
Never liked school from day 1. Did what I could to get of it and only did what I had to while there. Still walked away with 8 or 9 gcse's but only 2 x B's Maths and French were F's and English and single science were D's, Rural science was a C but I was not happy with that as the paper they made me sit even if I got 100% I still wouldn't get higher than a C! they wouldn't let me do the higher paper as they didn't think I would get more than a D!

To this day I have never once used them. Didn't need any of them to get in college for Agi engineering NVQ level 2, didn't need them for either of my employees and didn't need them when I went back to college to do NVQ level 3. Self employed since 2003 so unlikely to ever need them now

Okay this is all 15 years plus ago and times have moved on somewhat. So the advice is do the very best you can because they might come in handy for something, I never set out to go self employed it just happened.

 

[multi power]

But you don't have them so if you gave me a CV wanting a job and I didn't already know you I would assume you were a right thicko.
That's the problem.

Any job I ever applied for where I had to send a cv never went anywhere
However almost any I managed to actually talk to someone about the job I got an interview and almost always a job offer

 

[Robt]

Simple answer, ignore all the bravado on here, yes they are very important !

 

[DanL99]

I left school last year and came out with reasonable grades. All c's and one b, I didn't really try as much preferred being out on the farm etc but at the same time kept one ear open so done ok but could've done a lot better if I put effort into it. I've found that GCSE's only help you in your first steps after leaving such as getting you into college etc but not getting a job, I've got myself work on two farms and both just wanted to know what experience I've got and see what my attuide was like etc I got a trial and got the jobs and that was just down to me turning up on time, working hard etc but here's the thing, you could know a fair bit about agriculture but if you come out with no grades and end up on level 1 or 2 course it'll be a massive waste as you'll know most of it and be working at a higher level so you've wasted a year where as if you got your c's you could go on level 3 maybe learn a thing or two, so I done think there massively important but could save you a year or two after school, I think it's you experience and attitude that matters the most really

 

[multi power]

Simple answer, ignore all the bravado on here, yes they are very important !

Why's that then, do they help you to plough in a straight line