There’s always more than one way
This can be a very distressing time of year for people who had hoped to get a particular college course but didn’t get the points, and that can happen for a variety of reasons.
Some people may have gotten no offers. Some people may have gotten offers for courses that were well down their CAO list, courses they may not be that interested in.
Even for people who got their first preference courses and are due to start college, university or some form of third level education soon, they may discover it’s not what they thought or hoped it would be.
After all, it’s pretty difficult to know what many third level courses are like until you are in the system and understand the lingo and how things work.
So there are also many people who got one of their first preferences and who are not going to like or feel able for their courses. And that’s okay too.
A few years ago one of my family wasn’t sure what they wanted to do in college. I suggested that they take a year out after Leaving Cert and worked, ideally in an area that they might have an interest in.
There’s a lot you can learn in a year in any full-time job. It can help to tell you what you do and don’t like to do and what your skills are suited to. It might not tell you what you want to do or study but it might help you to clarify what you don’t.
In the end, the person ignored my advice and did Arts and is now happily in a career that logically followed from Arts, but I still think my advice was solid!
Anyway, there is no one ‘correct’ path and there are many ways to get to almost any destination.
When I was in school, I was certain I wanted to go to UCC. So I did, and it’s a great university, but there are lots of other excellent institutions in Cork like CIT, College of Commerce, St John’s Central College and CSN College of Further Education.
They all have great courses, some excellent facilities and many inspiring teachers/lecturers. I can say that with certainty in the case of St John’s and CSN having done PLC (Post Leaving Cert) courses in each.
This week we have a 20 page education supplement covering a multitude of topics from getting better sleep to upskilling while you are in a job.
Included is a very interesting piece by John Fitzgibbons, Director of Further Education and Training at Cork Education and Training Board (CETB) on page 12 about third level education in Ireland.
“Ireland has, perhaps uniquely amongst EU countries, a preoccupation with going to college on the completion of post primary schooling,” he writes, questioning if the obsession is healthy.
He details an extensive list of different options for people outside the CAO/college system. They include apprenticeships, some of which have been revamped recently, as well as the many PLC courses available in Cork.
“So, if you are unsure about going to third-level, or if you wanted to go but didn’t get the points required, there is no need to panic. There are other options. No one option is intrinsically better than another; each student has to choose what is right for them,” he adds.
And I can certainly endorse that.