Secondary level education sound bites, still appear to focus solely on Third Level Options for students, despite the strong campaign to educate the public about alternative options.
Many second level students and their parents are still convinced that a Leaving Certificate student must go directly to a Third level college. “Any course in a third level college is better than the alternative” is still a comment we hear regularly from parents and students. The route to continue your education when you have completed your Leaving Certificate is not necessarily a straight road, with only one destination. It can be circuitous, or possibly like the ‘Yellow Brick Road’ from the Wizard of Oz, where real learning and personal development takes place.
The decisions you make after Leaving Certificate will not determine the rest of your life, but will impact on the next year or two, or perhaps four. At any time in your life, you have the power to change direction and to make new choices.
The following options are available to you after you complete your second level education. You may choose one or two of these options now, and later on choose a third option. You are not limited to only one choice for life. Each route has many benefits. It is important to choose the option(s), which work for you and complement your learning style.
- Further Education Course. Post Leaving Cert Course. (PLC course)
- Apprenticeship Course.
- Third Level Course.
- Employment – Part Time or Full Time.
Some people find it easy to choose their next steps in life. For many of us, we find it difficult to make choices. We are afraid of making mistakes, of getting it wrong, or disappointing others. In the end, all of us have to make our own decisions, take responsibility for those decisions and live with the consequences. It is part of life, of growing up and living our lives. The best way to make good decisions is by ensuring that our decisions are well informed:- Informed by quality research, where we ask relevant questions, where we analyse the information and we make decisions based on the evidence, and often combined with our ‘gut’ instincts.
We are never too young to begin research, to learn about ourselves and to discover what we want and why we want it. At Career Coaching Matters, we start this process with learners from every age group, for indeed we are all learners in this life. We go to school every day until we leave this earth.
Career Coaching Matters offers supports and challenges via mentoring and coaching for people who wish to develop personal insight, in order to engage with education, training and employment.
Please contact Angela for an appointment. Email:angela@careercoachingmatters.ie