No Formal Education / Overseas Students
If you have no formal education in the UK, you will have a slightly different journey to becoming a student at Preston College. However, rest assured that we have a range of study options available to help you achieve your goals. There is also a wide range of support available for students with learning difficulties, disabilities and or medical conditions, for speakers of other languages and for those who need to develop their maths and English skills.
The application process is outlined below.
Complete an online application form. You must apply before Sunday 31 May 2025 in order for your application to be processed and the steps below completed before September. Applications received after the deadline, will be deemed ‘late applications’ and we cannot guarantee the process will be facilitated before courses start in September.
Our range of courses can be found here on the 14-19 school leavers page. Places on all courses are limited.
Each of our courses has individual entry criteria that you will need to meet in order to study it successfully. An overview of our entry criteria can be found here. If you do not meet the entry criteria you can still apply to study with us and you should consider studying the Future Ready course – click here for more details on Future Ready.
Applicants who have no formal education (e.g. home schooled) or are overseas applicants should use the associated drop down tab in the drop down menu on the application form.
Residency
If you are an overseas student you will need to provide evidence of your UK residency status.
Click here for more information on evidence.
SEND
If you have an Educational Health Care (EHC) plan you will be required to provide the College with the plan.
Qualifications
You will need to provide evidence of any qualifications you have achieved. This includes GCSE English and maths. If you have no qualifications please email guidance@preston.ac.uk
If you have declared that you have had no formal education and/or that you have a SEND need on your application form or during your interview you will be required to attend an interview with the SEND team. If you are approved by the SEND team you will progress to the Step 4: Assessment.
During this step, you will be required to attend and complete an assessment of your maths and English skills. This is to determine your level of capability and will be used to identify the level of study you can access.
We recommend that you prepare for your assessment and complete some revision, here are a few links to revision material.
Once you have completed your assessment a member of the team will be in touch to review your application and capabilities and discuss and identify the right programme of study for you. This is a perfect opportunity for you to ask questions about your future study options and what you want to achieve.
Following the review, we will send you an offer to study with us. In order to secure your place, you will need to accept the offer, so we know that you are going to study at Preston College. Following the acceptance of your offer you will receive information about enrolment and how to apply for a college bursary.
Applicants who do not complete their review will be contacted by text message the next day asking them to re-book (if they are still interested). Applications will be automatically withdrawn if the applicant does not re-book their review.
If you have any questions, please email guidance@preston.ac.uk