Home Study
No home-educated student is the same and there could be a whole range of different reasons why you might be educated at home rather than in a school setting. Some students will be home-educated following traditional qualification routes, while others may follow more project or experience based learning, perhaps linked to the creative arts or learning outdoors.
Traditional qualifications
Options for studying from home can include the traditional qualifications such as GCSEs and A-levels which students can study for independently, online or with a tutor and then register and take the exams at a test centre. Visit the Joint Council for Qualifications to find a test centre near you.
You can find out more about different qualification levels here.
Other study options
The Arts Award, is a nationally recognised qualification. You can do an Arts Award in any area of the arts from fashion to poetry, rapping to dancing, sculpture to film, games design to DJing.
The Inspiring Digital Enterprise Award, known as iDEA is an international award winning programme that helps you develop digital, enterprise and employability skills for free.
The CREST Awards provides home educators with simple and adaptable activities aligned to the national curriculum, inspiring young people to think and behave like scientists and engineers.
You might also look at outdoors learning organisations where you can take part in Forest School activities.
Distance Learning
There are also many distant learning courses available to study online, including MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) which have been designed by universities and can give an insight into a subject you might want to study in the future as well as degree courses available via the Open University.
Interested in working and learning?
There are many ways you can both work and learn. The key advantages of doing this is that you can:
- earn money;
- continue learning;
- develop real experience and work-based skills in a specific job sector.
Find out more about the different ways you can earn while you learn. Explore apprenticeships and traineeships and search for local opportunities here.
Developing your essential skills
As a home educated student there are lots of opportunities for building skills that are essential for the world of work, including communication, teamwork and leadership, and creative problem-solving skills. You may be developing these skills through your own individual learning, through group activities with other home schoolers and within your local community.
You can complete the Careerpilot Skills Profile to see which skills you already use a lot and how these could be useful in work experience, jobs or when applying for courses. You can also see which skills are required for different jobs and think about skills you want to develop further.
You could also use resources from the Skills Builder Homezone to further develop your skills.
Wellbeing
For information on taking control of your mental health and wellbeing click here.