Welsh students await A-level results as firefighter balances exams with emergency calls

On Thursday morning, thousands of Welsh students will open their A-level results, and among them will be Bobi Jones, an 18-year-old from Newcastle Emlyn who has spent the past months doing something most of his peers have not: responding to emergency calls while sitting for exams. When his work alarm sounded during class at Ysgol Bro Teifi, his teachers let him leave. He would catch up on the material later. The past few months have been relentless—exams stacked against wildfire season, grass fires spreading fast across the region, the dual weight of studying business and sport A-levels while serving as an on-call firefighter for Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service. He describes himself as "quite relaxed" about his grades, though he carries the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification alongside everything else. His school's flexibility made the impossible possible.

Bobi is one story among many unfolding across Wales on Thursday. Rosa MacGowan, 18, from Swansea, has juggled four A-levels and the Welsh Baccalaureate while working part-time, all in pursuit of a place studying medicine at Glasgow University, with pharmacy at Newcastle as her backup. She spent the summer Interrailing, trying to live a normal teenage life between the pressure of applications and exams. She speaks of feeling "positive about the future" while acknowledging the nerves that come with results day—the knowledge that if things don't align, there are other paths, other cities, other chances. William Hopkins is waiting for results in a BTEC in Uniformed Protective Services alongside his A-levels, hoping to join the Army or Royal Marines as an officer, following family members into the armed forces. Caitlin Giffard needs three Bs to secure her place studying criminology with psychology at the University of the West of England in Bristol. She felt the shock of the jump from GCSE to A-level, watching friends whose grades had been strong suddenly struggle. But she felt good about this year's exams.

Thursday's results will cover not just A-levels but AS qualifications, BTecs, and other vocational credentials. Grades will be available from 08:00 BST, though the exact timing varies by school and college. Many students will use their results to confirm university offers and secure their places. The most popular subjects remain mathematics, biology, chemistry, and psychology. But the data beneath these individual stories tells a different narrative about Welsh education.

Computer science entries dropped 14.9% compared to last year. Spanish fell 12.9%. Drama and theatre declined 8.2%. Meanwhile, English language and literature surged 23.3%. Welsh language jumped 42.7%. German, from a smaller base, climbed 59.4%. These shifts reflect changing interests, changing pressures, changing futures. But the larger pattern is more troubling: fewer 16-year-olds in Wales are progressing to A-levels at all. Provisional data for 2025-26 shows that just 49% of Year 11 students who continue their education now move into AS courses—the first year of A-levels. A decade ago, in 2014-15, that figure was 60%. The gap represents thousands of young people choosing different routes: Level 2 courses equivalent to GCSEs, vocational qualifications at further education colleges, apprenticeships.

Bethan Evans, executive director for regulation and analysis at Medr, the body overseeing post-16 education in Wales, frames this as expansion rather than decline. "More options available to our young people today than ever before," she said. More are choosing vocational paths. More are pursuing apprenticeships. The system is diversifying. Yet the context complicates this optimism. A major UK government report recently highlighted a "lost generation" of young people with shrinking job and career opportunities. Welsh government data shows 17% of young people aged 16 to 24 are classified as NEET—not in education, employment, or training. Evans acknowledged this as "a significant challenge" with real impact on life prospects. Medr has expanded junior apprenticeship schemes in response, working across universities, colleges, and apprenticeship providers to try to catch learners early, before they slip away.

Bobi Jones will combine his results with an apprenticeship in electrical work, continuing his on-call firefighting. His school's flexibility allowed him to navigate two demanding paths at once. But for many Welsh young people, the question is not how to balance competing demands—it is whether there is a clear path at all. Thursday's results will open doors for some. For others, they will prompt difficult conversations about what comes next, about whether the expanding options Evans describes are genuine opportunities or simply different ways of managing a narrowing landscape. The data suggests the latter deserves serious attention.