Okay, serious thread drift here. Thanks for the apology TheBeak. Now can we all just have a big group hug and move on? It's Christmas after all.
Crescentpirate - I left school at 16 with no A Levels and GCSE grade B in Physics and C in maths (I went to work for a few years with the airlines). A long story cut short-ish, when the !!!! hit the fan I realised that there would be no decent chance of me getting a job as a pilot for a very long time so last September I went back to college and re sat my Physics and Maths GCSEs. I'm now doing AS levels (at the age of 21 may I add).
I think that you should go back to college in September next year and re sit your GCSES in a 1 year course, then go get your A Levels. You're still young and the A Levels will give you something to fall back on, especially if you decide in 5 years that you want to go to University. Don't worry or be too embarrassed about going back to college a few years older than anyone else, it shows good judgement.
No one has to be a FO at the age of 22. You have plenty of time in the future for that. When I come out of college with my A Levels I'll have more choices than I had before. (and the pilot job market in the UK will probably still be $hit) The thing with becoming a pilot is that you can get a fATPL without any GCSES at all - it's just when it comes to getting a job things get even more difficult. You either have to have:
- lots of money to buy a job with an airline (Ryanair)
- lots of luck (which very few people have)
- a friend or contact who knows the right people
..and if you don't have any of that you'll be battling it out with the rest of the CV pile - you want yours to stand above the rest.
As Tesco say: 'every little helps'.
Go on, do yourself a favour and build some decent foundations to a great career as a pilot through getting your A Levels. You wont regret it, I promise.