 At age 15 or 16 depending on birthday the students typically take exams for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) (which is equivalent to high school graduation in Canada, the United States many other countries) or other Level 1/2 qualifications.While "education" is compulsory until 18, "schooling" is compulsory to 16, thus post-16 education can take a number of forms, and may be academic or vocational.This can involve continued schooling, known as "sixth form" or "college", leading (typically after two years of further study) to A-level qualifications, or a number of alternative Level 3 qualifications such as Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC), the International Baccalaureate (IB), Cambridge Pre-U, WJEC or Eduqas.