Further and Higher Education

Further & Higher Education

Further Education

99% of Maidstone Grammar School students continue onto Further Education courses after Year 11. Although the majority stay on in our own 6^thForm, we endeavour to ensure that our students and their parents/carers are aware of all their Post-16 Options, including academic and technical routes and that they choose the most appropriate route for themselves.

Higher Education

Over 85% of Maidstone Grammar School students continue onto Higher Education courses (including degree apprenticeships) after Year 13 with others taking employment or gap year opportunities. A few students each year choose to study abroad. Our careers programme aims to ensure that our students and their parents/carers are aware of all their Post-18 Options, including higher education and employment/apprenticeship routes and that they are fully supported in choosing and achieving  the most appropriate route for themselves.

Visit our Careers Each Year section and Provider Access Policy for details of the support and opportunities we offer our students

Further and Higher Education Resources

In addition to resources in the MGS Careers Library, there are hundreds of on-line resources available to help with your research into Post-16 and Post-18 options. The following are a small selection of the most useful resources. (N.B. Other useful resources are in the Career & Labour Market Information and Employment & Apprenticeships Section).

Get The Jump – Explore all the different Post-16 and Post-18 education and training options open to students including A Levels, T Levels, Apprenticeships, Vocational & Technical qualifications and more. (CXK have some useful information on Everything You Need to Know About T Levels)

The Careers & Enterprise Company produce The Parents’ Guide to What’s Next with information about all the Post-16 and Post-18 Choices available.

Post-16 Choices

The National Careers Service has comprehensive information about all the Post-16 Options available to students.

Kent Choices produce the Next Step magazine, with advice for Year 11 students about Post-16 Options, plus a Post-16 Choices webinar for parents/guardians to explain the various options available.

Kent’s Online Area Prospectus (KentChoices) contains information about the subjects and courses available for 14-19 year olds at all schools, colleges and work-based learning providers across Kent. Year 11 students can make their Post-16 applications for 6th Form, college or work-based training/apprenticeships via this site.

Informed Choices includes advice on the best A Level subject combinations for a wide range of university courses as well as advice on useful subject choices if you don’t know what you want to study after school and need to keep your options open.

Post-18 Choices

UCAS – Your one-stop-shop for information about higher education and apprenticeships; plus searching and applying for UK university courses and apprenticeship opportunities. Take the UCAS Careers Quiz to get matched to jobs and see what courses previous students studied to get there. Find out more about Degree Apprenticeships.

UCAS Guide for Parents – resources and information dedicated to helping parents and guardians support students applying to university.

Prospects In addition to advice about university and apprenticeship options, Prospects also shows you what you can do with different degree subjects, in terms of career ideas and employment opportunities. (N.B. Remember that 70% of employers want graduates from any subject so if in doubt, study the subject you love!).

DiscoverUni – A comprehensive university comparison site, enabling you to compare statistics such as entry information, graduate prospects and earnings from different courses and universities.

University Open Days and Subject Taster Days

These are great ways to find out more about the universities and courses that might interest you. Details are on individual university websites plus sites such as:

Open Days, UniTasterDays, LondonTasterDays. Subject tasters and webinars are also available to watch on demand.

Student Finance

Information about the costs of going to university is available from the Student Finance England website.

University League tables can be useful starting points to find the “best” universities for the subjects you are considering studying, however, they take into account different criteria when deciding where to rank a university so do check these out- some of the factors may be more important to you than others.

For UK University rankings try: TheCompleteUniversityGuide or GuardianUniversityGuide.

For World University Rankings, try: Q.S World University Rankings  or

The Times World University Rankings.