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Hi.
I think this topic has been discussed already, but I can't find it?

I really want to do performing as a job, and can't think of anything else, so I was thinking about a BTEC in performing arts. However, I don't want to take a BTEC then find that I cant get work in performing and be stuck. I know, it sound deperessing but this really has been playing on my mind recently.
Everyone I know is doing a A-levels and I was wondering if i should just do theatre studies A-level and drama at uni and in my own time (I already do LOADS (!) in my own time but at school I feel like I don't do enough) as I do also enjoy lessons like english and geography.

So what I was wondering is, does anyone know if it is better to do A-levels or BTEC Performing? Do universities take a BTEC into account (not sure if thats worded right...what i mean is, can you get into university with a BTEC?) and does anyone have any experience with either that could help me?

Final thing, I'm in the midlands. Does anyone have any experience with BOA Academy in birmingham or Stratford College BTEC performing arts?

I'm getting a bit scared as I really don't know what to do and my family don't really understand Drama and what is required for training and working so they can't really help and suggested I try and ask others for opinions-.
Thanks so much,
CharlotteRose x

Hi my daughter did Btec National diploma in performing Arts instead of A levels,must better course for her-when applying for uni it counts the same as A levels if you are doing drama or musical theatre that type of thing at uni.
Make sure you do the diploma with eighteen units in though-dd was offered places at several universities with this qualification plus audition.
Good luck with your choice,she loved the Btec,lots of pratical but theory too
Oh at Stratford college,dd auditioned there for HND course,got a place but refused it,she did like the college but decided not to take any uni places this year for private reasons,it was certainly very nice I went with her that day and had a nose around.

We have done this quite a few times - but your post has a couple of other potential issues in it you need to be aware of.

Theatre studies is NOT remotely a Performing Arts qualification. You'll do a fair bit of study into the history of theatre, and probably go back to the greeks, look at the milestone practitioners and look deeply into the teachers favourite areas. You will do excerpts from well known works, but rarely do a full blown production, because it's not needed, and there's no time for it anyway.

Pretty well people get stuck with the term drama - theatre studies is all about drama - so angst ridden pieces, often far more tragedy than comedy, and material where words are able to be studied - the text, the meaning, the historic, social and political events that inspired, or perhaps controlled them - that sort of stuff.

BTEC is a whole programme that will have drama in it - but is put together from a whole suite of units, that the staff select to allow them to use their own skills, and interest the students. The colleges also select units that allow big/bigger productions to be done on usually a fairly major scale. If it's a big college - they will be running many different strands, so the dancers have more dance, the musical theatre people will do dance, singing and acting, and the acting strand might do bit of moment and more physical theatre work. Some classes will join people together, others will be in smaller groups. They may have a production arts programme alongside where they have people who make things happen for the others - basically all contributing to the whole. Assessment is individual, but often focused on working as a team member - like in the real world. Colleges frequently treat their BTEC people as 'workers' rather than students - where a slack person has a choice - socks up, or leave. Often, unreliable people are excluded from the best bits. They frequently have to audition for parts, like the real world. In A Levels, projects have to be considered carefully to allow everyone to get the top grade. BTEC tends to force you to work hard for it.

If you want to be a lawyer, and there was a BTEC in law available (luckily there isn't!) you'd probably be silly to even consider it, because the unis that do law expect knowledge as in A Level Law, there's no practical. However, unis that do practical work prefer BTEC in many cases, because they know what BTEC people are capable of - and they know that a bare Pass or Merit really meant one thing. You didn't try hard enough. As BTEC rules are public, you can see exactly what you must prove you can do, or understand to get the Distinction grade. Nobody ever should be in doubt. Canny BTEC students hand in assignments and tell the teacher it is a D - because they've read the rules, compared their work to them, and therefore all they need is the evidence. Often, the assessor may disagree, and usually a bit more is needed - the student just goes off and does it, and the grade goes up. BTEC is like work - you are judged on what you can do - and some people need more tries to gradually get better - other people hit the D straight away. Very often pre-existing skills like being in am dram, or being a dancer since a child mean that you already are distinction standard for some of the criteria - in this case, you just need to prove it by meeting the rules, and you get the grades. A Level results are often a surprise - BTEC is continual assessment, all the way through, and you always know how good you are.

Each BTEC centre have a different focus, and you need to ask them which units are on offer. Some have a fixed list, others offer more than you need (as in the 18 mentioned over 2 years) - and then you can select ones you know will work for you. Other things to check are the teacher's specialities - very often college teachers are industry trained, then go into teaching because the money is good! You get benefit from professional experience. Schools rarely have specialists - Theatre Studies may be taught by an excellent drama teacher - or a newly qualified teacher who has never acted in their lives - it's simply not necessary. Resources need looking at - new flashy builds and purpose designed theatres look good on the surface, but very often are hired out in the evenings, meaning the students can never leave things half completed. Everything has to stay neat and tidy. Older colleges with somewhat ropey Victorian buildings should not be ruled out - often they are really great for atmosphere - even if the roof leaks. I've seen an ancient old school hall where the students painted the walls, ceiling and floor to make it a dark, dank sewer for a play - when they finished, they just all painted it back to blue in their spare time. You can't do that in new builds!

Staff enthusiasm is the key.

BTEC Level 3 and A Level have the same uni/ucas points value, so the key really is what will work best for you. If it's A Level, then for uni you'll want to go to a study based uni. If you love doing things, it's BTEC then you will go to a similar vocational uni. Makes little difference. In panto here at the moment, 6 of the dancers all have BTECs, one has A Level Theatre studies and the other did ........ sciences! All came from Laines this year. Oddly, our Princess has an MA in psychology which she took before going to the London School of Musical Theatre. There really isn't a problem with any route - you just need to be good.

Yes this has been discussed several times, though paulears has given a pretty comprehnsive answer. My Dd was in your position, but was 100% sure she wanted to try for performing as career so took the BTEC route which workd out well for her. However, many who were on her BTEC course have done other things - several are in uni (doing drama, teaching, English) another is a singer (working theatres, clubs etc), another is getting by with extra work, quite a few did same as DD and have gone for further vocational training (for whih they had lots of help and guidance when applying).

I would emphasise that i think the outcome of a BTEC course is however far more effected by the quality of the teachers than A levels are. It makes ahuge difference how talented or experienced the teachers on the course are. If you are considering BTEC I would ask the staff how many ex students have got into vocational colleges or have gone into the profession. That should give an indication of the strength of the course. A poor BTEC course can be very poor. 2 local colleges offer it where I live, one is outstanding the other mediocre at best.

That said as i have said before it is an individual and personal choice. Do what is best for you.

Wow what a massive amount of information to process. CharlotteRose I would print all that off and read it several times and get other people to as well.You don't get it all on first or second reading (says a boring old person who reads a lot and gets the point on the 4th or 5th go)

Sorry to hijack, but how do you find our which colleges are good (or fantastic or adequate)? With Unis you go by what you teaches say (mine pushed for Keele or Hull - I ended up in Plymouth & they were right ); but my DD has so many teachers and they may advise in all sorts of ways. Presumably there aren't league tables or anything.

No - but don't forget you can read the OFSTED report - where satisfactory means quite the opposite! Once you have read a few OFSTED reports you can easily start to read between the lines. If the staff have professional backgrounds it gets a mention - usually sort of in passing. "The course team, by virtue of their industry backgrounds, were able to bla bla. Watch out for the small comments too, they often reveal all sorts of things.

In two music lessons, the teacher talked a great deal, did not question the students to check their understanding or encourage them to explore their own ideas and failed to engage their interest. In contrast, in a technical theatre lesson, the students discussed and resolved authentic problems of stagecraft, such as how to lower a coffin on stage, and benefited from the professional knowledge and experience of the teacher. Both the students and the teacher gave proper consideration to health and safety issues.

Guess who that's talking about? You can see the kinds of comments, and draw some conclusions. These reports are all on the OFSTED site, so you can scrutinise what goes on.

You MUST visit places you are interested in. If you get the chance - talk to the students, and ask their advice - they're always quick to reveal anything bad. You have to temper it a bit - as they'll love dance, but no doubt hate 'the performing arts business' = one of the essential, but pretty dull units they have to do.

I did A Levels, and to a large degree I think the comment about teacher types is spot on. when I was first qualified, and stopped doing performing arts, and taught it instead - I was given A Level Communications to teach. I knew nothing whatsoever about it, but it was fine as long as you were a chapter ahead of the students, because your age works for you and a bit of acting experience lets you convince the students you know your stuff, when it's almost as new to you, as it is to them. That simply doesn't work with BTEC - if you are a bit weak, you can't generate the correct work for them to be doing. Very difficult to blag!

I agree the teaching us the key with this,in first year the course was weak that dd took,and she almost left then the teacher changed and so did the course,it was fab then and she gained a lot.
Difficult to know what you are getting though, that is the trouble

DS started a BTEC in sept. Loves the work, lots of performance and learning about new areas. Acting is his absolute passion.

We are, however, surprised that many (over half) of the students on the course have no previous experience and that acting is clearly not a passion! Shame really as DS had hoped to be immersed in passion filled performers! In fact one student moaned that they were going on a trip to see a play 'because he hated watching plays'.......and some of them have never read a book just for pleasure. Still, it takes all sorts to make a world! .......Bit of a shame though as its definitely affecting the level of 'course satisfaction'.

Tikka

I know of many students who have gone to Stratford (upon Avon?)to do the BTEC in Performing Arts and they have all loved it. They have all been dancers so I cannot comment for other strands of the BTEC nor do I know anything about the standard or quality of teaching. A few have gone onto Performing Arts degrees at university, others are now teaching, either their own dance classes or have joined amateur theatre/dance companies. DDs friend is in her final year and hoping to go to Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (if I have the name right). As far as BOA is concerned, obviously this is very new. Several of DDs friends have chosen to apply there this year but I do not know anyone there at present.

WOW!
Thank you all so much for your knowledge and advice. I spoke to my GCSE Drama teacher who is trying to persuade me to stay and do A level... (Quote "I'm not loosing you" ) and I'm still finding the decision making process really difficult (as I'm sure everyone who has made this decission knows! ), however, I am going to an open day at BOA soon so I'll have a chance to look round and see all the things that the school has too offer!

As I said before, thanks for all your advice. I'm deffinately going to read it all through a few times as its been so useful!

Thanks a lot everybody!
CharlotteRose

School teachers are under lots of pressure to retain their brightest students to do A Levels if the school don't do BTEC - even if they know they'd benefit from something that is all hours on one subject area.

In places that do both, A Level is leaking numbers like mad. Some sixth form colleges have returned to 100% A Level because a high proportion of their kids are from middle-class backgrounds, and their parents don't like the idea of mixing with 'those sorts of people'. Sadly there still is huge amounts of snobbery about A levels being the 'Gold Standard' - and for some subjects they really are. They just don't suit everyone - because we all learn differently.

There are always people who get through the interview/audition process and simply are not that interested. Worse still are those kids who have been told by friends and family that they're really good, and then they discover that they've moved from a group at school where they got all the plumb roles, to a college where others are actually better. It's a bit of a shock. The people who can only be bothered to work just hard enough to get the Pass zoo find themselves alienated because of the group work. Nobody wants to be saddled with somebody hopeless. At school, the weak ones were frequently encouraged to do the stage management or technical options, to get them out of people's hair. At college - some people will be excellent stage managers and technical people - and they get picked as useful people, as do the better singers, actors and dancers. Those with no strong area at all - do tend to be a bit of a liability - they usually shape up, or ship out!

The teachers are often crafty enough to not even get involved with this, as the selection process for the productions can even form part of the assessment, so the students do it - and seeing them learn to perhaps not pick a friend for the first time ever is worth watching. Very good for real jobs.

One other point about BTEC. With a teacher who understands it, somebody who is a keen outside am dram person, or dancer can very often use these activities to get assessed on. There are some rules, but in essence, the teacher writes an assignment for just one person (assuming they're willing) - so you get something along the lines of "Take part in an amateur production and choreograph the song ABC for a group of 6 dancers" - The teacher can then either see the show, get something video'd or get the director or dance school teacher (if they understand BTEC) to do the assessment against the criteria. Not every teacher feels they can do this - but many are willing. It makes a bit of extra paperwork, but if they end up with good grades from a proper outside show, why not?

The BTEC system is really popular in schools as an alternative to GCSEs - replacing perhaps 2 or 4 subjects with a performing arts Level 2 qualification. Again, like Level 3 - it has real points, credit wise.

I can think of quite a few of my old students who would have got better success in college from BTEC, but equally there are others who really should have done A Levels instead. Everyone has different needs.

Warning points.

Watch out for hours being fudged - education tends to talk about guided learning hours. So some could consider doing research in the library as 'guided' - so a full time course could be 20 hours a week, or just 14 or 15 class time hours - often shrunk into three days, with two days a week off. This suits students who may have to get outside jobs to pay the bills - not all live at home or get benefits. They then get cross when it comes around to production time, when the two days off get cancelled and used as rehearsal time. Other schools or colleges run 5 days, but maybe everyone has to go in Friday for just one single hour! Obviously, attendance on this day will be poor. Some will travel long distances, so two hours travelling for one hour of class can be bad. Equally bad is a day with 9-11, and 3 to 4 on the timetable. Often it just has to be, but it can stretch people's patience.

My daughter took three weeks off rehearsing a professional panto in an adult role during her Btec,and the teacher assessed her on it as part of the course,she had to keep a production diary etc also.The course quite flexible in that way with some teachers.And yes Btec days and hours for the course are varied, hers was four days one finishing at three,one starting at ten etc.

My ds did the BTec in Performing Arts having done a year on the IB course first. Although there is a lot of practical work on the BTec, he still had an awful lot of written work with the various modules and the dreaded log books!!!! A Levels/IB were just not right for him and he thrived on the BTec. At the end of the day I think it has got to be what is best for you. If you are not happy with your choice, it is hard to thrive.

My DDs BTEC course wanted to mimic vocational training as much as possible to let students know a little of what it would be like before they auditioned. So the hours were 5 days a week, start at 9 and finish at 5. hour for luch every day and one shorter break as well (though those hours are still far less than drama college - though thats another story ). They also had to wear blacks for all classes, and latecomers of more than 5 min were not admitted . It was a good experience and sorted the wheat from the chaff pretty early

My own students hated log books. In truth, they're only mentioned in a few units now - but many teachers love log books. "Reflective Practice" - in your teaching qualification. The trouble is of course that many people just do what is a diary, and it often fails to hit the criteria. The colleges in particular have moved on now and lots use the 'big brother diary room' as a model. So the kids go into a room, and talk about what they've done - often with a big sign on the wall that says in big letters EXPLAIN!!! The teacher then watches the tape. Much simpler, and now, with Big Brother - even the timid shy ones can do it, in private. Log-books are fast vanishing. The actors will keep them, because many teachers are old school and can't do the technology. When I rewrote the last pile of BTEC units, I removed written log books as a rule - wherever I could. Sometimes, I couldn't because the written document was really important. We had much discussion on this, and many dance specialists just couldn't see the need for them in some units - so they went!

Ex-A Level teachers have real problems moving to BTEC, because they have got so used to paper, they assume it's needed for BTEC and just try to convert their old system which rarely works.