Students look to the future on A-level results day

Students across the south are now looking to the future, after facing the agony and the ecstasy of finding out their A-level, T-level and Btec results on Thursday morning.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service said this year saw a record number of UK 18-year-olds secure a place at their first choice of university.

Among them was Holly from City of Oxford College, who achieved an A* in sociology along with two A grades in history and criminology and said she "was not expecting that at all".

But not everyone got the grades they needed, with some heading into clearing, whilst other students had no ambition of university in the first place.

City of Oxford College student Megan got A*s in maths and further maths and an A in physics, and is now off to start an apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce.

"I didn't really want to do uni, I suppose," she said.

"I just wanted to do something different to school and it's got a bit of uni work, but I can also work and start my career."

Despite a record number of students making it into their first choice universities, many who didn't may now want to go through clearing to find a place at a different university.

"It's not the end of the world," Simone Simmons, from the Southampton Solent University clearing office, told the BBC.

"We're quite busy today and the operators, all the staff, we're here, we're ready to speak to people and we're ready to have a chat with students."

She said the university was often able to offer students "other routes into degrees".

"When you're able to do that, students realise 'oh, actually, there is something there for me, I can pursue this'."

But like Megan, many A-level students may not wish to go to university and are instead interested in apprenticeships.

Whilst at school, Romilly Oliver from Bournemouth dreamed of being a dentist, but then changed tack to do a painting and decorating apprenticeship.

"I took a year out after my A Levels and that gave me the time to do lots of different jobs, meet lots of different people, have different experiences and come to the conclusion I didn't think university was for me anymore," she said.

"I didn't think from the people I met that it was necessary to go to university to have that social experience or to have that life experience."

"You can do it in the real world."

Alongside A-level results, students across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Dorset Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were also collecting T-level and Btec results on Thursday.

Karen Griffiths is group deputy principal at the Windsor Forest Colleges Group in Berkshire, and said there had "always been value in technical qualifications".

"I think that what we're seeing now is an understanding that the academic and theoretical route, which is brilliant for many people, is not necessarily for everybody and isn't necessarily required for every role," she said.

Windsor Forest Colleges Group operate Berkshire College of Agriculture, Slough and Langley College and Windsor College - which all offer T-Level qualifications.

Griffiths explained that as part of a T-level, students most complete a 45 day industry placement which "gives students that real hands-on experience".

"We're finding that many of our host employers are so impressed by our T-Level learners that when they finish their qualification, there are job offers," she said.

"That old adage 'it's who you know, not what you know' is still there."