Options for 17 year old??

[Guest theclarkes]

Hi there, we are hoping someone can advise us, our son is 17, will be 18 in March, we are hoping to be in Adelaide by the end of the year on a PR Visa. Can anyone tell me do you have to pay for college out there, ie TAFE?? If we do its not a problem but what is worrying us is that he didnt get great GCSE results, the only good one was in PE so am hoping he can enrol for a Sports based course but does anyone know how difficult it is to get onto a course with regards to exam results from the UK?? and more to the point that they were very poor!! So would he be accepted?? Also what sort of things to older kids this age do at the weekends, evenings etc?? He wont discuss coming with us but we are not leaving him behind and hoping he will find something he likes doing, meet some new friends and have a better life than what he would have here.

At the moment he is only interested in playing sports, x box, mates, going out!!!

We need to sell it to him a bit, so any insight from any boys this age or parents with kids this age would be great.

Thank you

Rain and Neil

[ian mc]

Hi I think if you do a tafe course you need to pay for it My daughter who is 26 and does not stay with us has just finished a tafe course (beauty) and she had to pay for it. My 18 year old son left school at 16 not academic hated school is working as a apprentice bricky since leaving school also goes to tafe but his boss pays for it. He moved out to live with his girlfriend and he also still plays x box etc fiddles with cars and goes out with friends.

[Guest theclarkes]

He sounds like my son thats what i am hoping that he will find his feet, thanks for the info.

 

Lorraine

[Guest Chandan]

He sounds like a normal healthy teenage boy!! I didnt pass year 10 , with hardly a good grade in sight.. give me something I can make and away I go.. some people arent academic at all.. but they have other great skills.. Im am 32 and have just realised what I want to do with my life.. it doenst come naturally to most of us.. and all my school friends who went onto uni into their chosen careers are now back at uni studying for something completely different because they werent happy with what they thought was good at the time.. but now with huge uni debts!!

Tafe has a website you should check out.. maybe call and speak to someone.. I rang them the other day and missed this years intake for courses and will have to wait till next month to enrol for next year.. the academic year runs from Feb-Dec in australia.

They also offer Appreticships for people your sons age.. so he might find something he never even thought about.

If he goes to Tafe, and gets a casual job he will make friends fast. My husband and I came here 6 weeks ago, all my friends live here and he met his new friends 5 weeks ago and has a busier social life than me!!

Your son will love it here.. although he might not admit it.. and if he really hates it that much he could always go back.. its not a one way destination...

Good luck and hope to hear he's (and you) are happy in the near future. And check out Tafe website for enrollment details. (my teaching course I want to do costs $2150 (£1300 or abit less)... prices vary.

[Guest Chandan]

Another thing.. PE is a really good thing to be interested over here.. Aussie's are sports mad so a jobs involving sports are at abundance.. he'll be fine.. try looking at the Centrelink website also they advertise Apprenticeships.. and Volunteering opens lots of doors to jobs