My son is 17 doing A levels predicted ABB but wants to join army from school and not go to uni,is he best to do degree?

Hi,
The best thing for your son to do is go to your local army careers office and have a sit down face to face conversation with them regarding his options. Depending on where he wants to get in the army they will give the best advice for him and how to go about it hopefully they will get him on the right tracks of where he needs to be.
Thank you

Hi, as Abbie said, if he goes to his local careers office (you could go with him) and speaks to an advisor that would be a great first point of call. There are a couple of options that we might wish to consider and research prior to going.

Is he looking at going officer or soldier entry?

If he is going soldier entry then look at the more technical trades (Engineers, Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Royal Signals or the Intelligence Corps). It would be highly likely he'd get a degree through the army (paid for by the army).

If he is looking at going Officer route, he would leave Sandhurst with a Level 7 qual (degree equiv) and could go on to do a degree either in his own time (paid for by the army) or full time whilst serving (go to uni as a full time student whilst also getting paid his salary).

Long gone are the days you had to be a graduate to be an officer and now lots go who don't have a degree. Equally we have lots of soldiers who join with degrees and even have serving soldiers who have completed PhDs whilst serving.

Although I was a graduate when i went to Sandhurst i have completed a fully funded (although completed in my own time, with support from my chain of command for time off to study) MSc whilst serving.

Your son might also want to look at Uni Bursary: https://apply.army.mod.uk/what-we-offer/regular-officer/officer-funding?cid=semp4371593433&ef_id=b22c8a5c1382150433a0eb6cc66b9c53%3aG%3as&s_kwcid=AL!8141!10!80264437475301!80264531976475&msclkid=b22c8a5c1382150433a0eb6cc66b9c53
Whilst at uni there are University Officer Training Corps (UOTC). These units give an insight into the Army (with no requirement / pressure to join the army) and you get paid for drill nights, adventurous training, basically anything you do with the UOTC. It's a great way to have a job whilst at uni. As someone who has been a cadet at a UOTC and more recently served as Directing Staff at a UOTC i can highly recommend it!

There are so many opportunities, if your son doesn't want to leave uni with debt. Hopefully this can give you both something to think about and research. Good luck.