Board Thread:Off-Topic Discussion/@comment-6433273-20160713122023/@comment-53539-20160824084716

In the UK thats not quite how it works.

The basics is that you do 10 years of education which ends when you are approx. 16, you start at about 5-6. The school year begins in September and ends in July. August is normally due to it being mid-6 week break, thus a no-school month and students start 1 week after September begins  The year is always broken into "terms" which last about 6-8 weeks. The last term often is the longest 8-10. You have a week break at mid-term and then normally 2 weeks off at end of term. The next term begins after the break.

Until the age of 16 (unless you are allowed to do GCSE sooner which can happen) school is compulsory and you do GCSEs, in 1999 they changed it so you must stay at school until the 10th year is done, before that you had no compulsion to complete the last year. Regardless, in Year 10 you do GCSE exams.

College is a little confusing. You have A-levels (where a C-grade is the same as a GCSE A grade) or GNVQs and a couple of other methods. You have to pick and choose the middle path. Normally it lasts 2-3 years. In the last few years it was made compulsory to stay in education until 18. You start in October and end back in July again.

Once you've done with college, you move until university. The difference here is education is no longer free. It starts in October and in Jan-Feb you have a period where you don't see your tutors and your expected to do your own studying. It ends in jun/July depending on what your schedule exam/show/etc is booked.

If you do not have enough points from college, you can do a foundation year to earn them as I did. Then you move onto degrees.

Degrees have several levels, the basic is a amateur profession level, which I forget what its called. In my case I did Fine Art. I have a "BA" (Bachelor of the Arts). The teachers will help you here. Most jobs that require a degree say you have at least this, like teaching. :-/

The advantage student has a £20,000 debt from university, but you are entitled to do jobs that will bring in that a year and do jobs that earn you £18,000-£40,000. They take a % off of your pay to recover it.

Next level you are at masters level (MA in the case of art or "Master of the arts"). You are completely self-studying, in fact, they only need to see you 4 days in the entire time to know you exist. You are regarded as already capable of doing the basics.

This point, you are expected to be able to teach others of your field, the average pay is £40,000-£80,000 and raising up

Then comes PDHD awards, which mean your a expert of your field. This is not a degree, but something else. Average pay is £80,000 and all the way up in a job. Can go into the millions a year

There are a few more things to this. I got as far as the first stage of degrees. By the time you've reached the top of education, you can expect to be earning about a quarter of a million a month. So if you want it, it'll pay. I wanted to become a teacher, but in the end things happened and now I'm not capable of it for mental health reasons. :-/