Level 7 or 8? Help or advice please

bobbyy gee wrote: »

i would go with level 8 you will never catch up from level 7
https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/education/figuring-out-the-difference-between-level-8-and-level-7-30664341.html

I would completely disagree with this. Progressing onto a level 8 from a level 7 is a logical progression. Unless they as an individual struggle which no one can predict, but a level 7 doesn't equal all who does one would struggle. People choose to do level 7s for all sorts of reasons.

I'm experienced in the adult education sector people regularly start at level 4/5 (or even lower) and work their way up, each level at a time. Some even all the way to PHD (level 10). Anyway Depending on the course/institution the level 7 is just the first 3 years of the level 8 degree. My brother did a level 7 in Computer Science because that is all the local institution offered at the time. It's where all of his friends were going, it’s a strong IT, so he wanted to go there too. There is never any guarantees that anyone gets a place on a course but he and several of his classmates had the grades and just saw it as doing an extra year someplace else.

Different Institutions and courses have different rules for progression, or advanced onto level 8’s from level 7. The institution may have a relationship with a university where people typically progress onto or they may have their own add on year, for example. So I would check with the institutions in question for your son and what are the requirements and options for progression or advanced entry are.

In my opinion, however, if they want to finish with a level 8, engineering is the qualification they want, and they feel academically ready then I would go for the level 8. There is an argument to do the level 7 in case they don't like it and then they could top it up with a level 8 that they would prefer, which they might not know until they get studying. Though it would be more way more expensive the same could be done with a level 8 and a level 9 masters, they would be theoretically more employable after that though.

Having said all that, if you want to be really real and blunt about it; Level 7s are becoming less common and a potential future employer may see them as not having been strong enough to get a place on a level 8. I'm not saying people doing level 7 are academically weaker but I can see how people could see it that. CAO courses that are not level 8s can have a bit of a sigma. This might depend on how snobby the community you’re in though, like when I was in school anyway people only did courses that weren't level 8s if they didn't get the points for what they really wanted. And god forbid you did an apprenticeship! They were only for working class, school dropouts. I feel people with those opinions show no real understanding for how they level system works though, that its about building up ETC Credits and many Level 8s offer early exit if you want to leave with a 6/7. And lets not forget that people might actually you know just choose to do a level 7.