Did you know that you don’t have to be at school to study a GCSE? NEC courses are studied online, giving you the flexibility to study exactly where and when you like. There’s a wide number of subjects to choose from too, including all of the essential subjects such as maths, English and science, as well as some of the less common ones such as psychology and astronomy.

GCSEs for all

NEC students are not just school-aged, under the age of 18. You might wonder why someone who has left school might go back and study GCSEs again. We recently surveyed our students to find out why they chose to study their GCSEs with us, here are some of the reasons they gave us.

35% were looking to change career or to get a job.

Two of the careers mentioned most often were nursing and teaching. You need maths and English GCSE at grade C or grade 4 or above to be allocated a place. The flexibility of studying with NEC and the tutor support from a subject specialist were the main reasons students chose to study with NEC. If you’re thinking about a career in nursing or teaching, take a look at our free career tracks guides. They’re packed full of practical information for people thinking about becoming a teacher of a nurse.

One such student is Namja Khan. Namja has a degree in maths but still needed to gain a GCSE to go onto teacher training. You can see her being interviewed on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show this morning

15% were planning to go onto further education of some kind

Studying GCSEs online with NEC helped Ben do just that. Ben became unwell with M.E. when he was 13, which caused severe fatigue making it difficult for him to study, particularly if he was having a bad day. He was unable to attend school for almost three years. Ben wanted to return to school to study at sixth form but needed GCSEs in maths and English to be accepted.

40% said that they planned to go into higher education

Julia was educated at home from the age of 15 and always planned of going onto study at university. Being able to study GCSEs at home put her on track to achieving that. She said: “It’s down to NEC that I was able to go to university and study the subject I have loved since being a child. I’m sure my life would have taken a very different course without home education.”

Whatever your reasons for study, rest assured that you don’t have to be at school to study a GCSE. If you’re inspired by any of our students to enrol on a GCSE this Autumn, get in touch with NEC’s expert course advice team. We’ll be happy to help.