Students up and down the country have received their A level results today. News programmes will be filled with teenagers celebrating the hard work of the last two years paying off, or commiserating about having to retake. Colleges and sixth forms across the country will be celebrating the success of the students, proud of what they have achieved.

NEC is no exception, with thousands of students each year studying A levels with NEC we too are proud of their achievements. The difference with many NEC students though, is that they are often studying around other commitments and come from all over the world. They could be any age and studying for any number of reasons.

We are often asked ‘who is a typical NEC student?’ Our answer: They will typically live anywhere and are male or female between the ages of 9 and a half and 86. They are often being educated at home rather than at school, working full time, have a young family to raise, or are retraining to become a teacher, midwife or nurse. You can meet some of them on our website.

As diverse as NECs students are, they all have three things in common: hard work, dedication and the desire to change their lives.

NEC exams expert Louise told us: ‘This year we’ve had more people than ever sitting exams with our partnership centres and submitting coursework for the subjects that require it. This is because of the new A level specifications coming in for popular subjects like Biology and English and 2016 was the final opportunity to take the legacy specifications.’

‘I’ve spoken to a lot of students who are worried about the deadlines that the reforms have created and are convinced that they have done poorly. I would like to reassure those students that even if they have not achieved the grade they hoped for, there is a chance to resit in 2017. Do get in touch if you have any questions or want to talk through your options.’

An area that has been of particular interest to Ros Morpeth, CEO of NEC are the A level French results. ‘This year we have had more students register to sit their French exams with us – 40% more in fact – which is surprising as the trend nationally has declined.This decline was also reported in the Times Educational supplement today.’ She explained:

‘I was delighted to see this morning the excellent results in this subject. 93.33% of our students who sat their A level exams with us achieved a C or above, compared to the national average of 87.12%. This is even more impressive when you consider that most of these students will be studying around other commitments such as work and family life.’

‘A level French is a good example of a subject that is often difficult to do as a private candidate because of the oral exam requirements. As a registered exam centre ourselves, we are able to offer a solution to our students. They can come and take the oral exam with us or at one of our partnership exam centres.’

‘Following on from this success, we’ll be launching A level Spanish shortly as well as launching a new A level French course in line with the revised 2016 specification. Both of these will be delivered online through our new learn@nec platform and feature engaging and interactive content designed to provide a flexible solution for our students.’

If you would like to be opening your results this time next year, get in touch about enrolling with NEC. You can find out more about our wide range of A level subjects on the website, or speak to our Course Advice Team for more information or to register your interest in our new Spanish and French A levels. You can call us free from any UK landline on 0800 389 2839, or you can email us at info@nec.ac.uk.

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