‘Gamechanger’ programme allows students to attain third-level degree outside CAO points race

Public awareness of further education and training (FET) has been growing significantly in recent years, and so too has its popularity. Government and those working in the education sector have long lamented the focus on the CAO points race and the pressure this puts on students to achieve top marks.

Now, adding to the already existing pathways, there is a new, “gamechanger” programme that allows students to attain a third-level degree outside of the CAO, called the tertiary degree programme.

In July, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris announced students can, for the first time, enrol in one of 23 courses across healthcare, enterprise, ICT and creative sectors in a further education institution before progressing to a higher education institution to complete their fully accredited degree.

Maria Walshe, director of branding, communications and FET strategy implementation at Solas, the State agency responsible for developing further education in Ireland, said this innovation is a “very exciting” change to the current system, describing it as a “gamechanger”.

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“The programmes are co-designed and co-delivered by a further education college partnering with a higher education institute. The student will sign up to a degree programme, but they will start that degree programme in a further ed institute,” she said.

“They will do one or two years there and then they will progress automatically to do their third and fourth year of a degree in the higher education institute. All the way through there are step back qualifications, so as they complete year one or complete year two, there are qualifications associated with that.”

Ms Walshe said what’s different about this from the traditional system is it takes access to higher education “out of the points race”.

“There will be eligibility criteria for the programmes but it won’t be about points. It could be minimum attainment of the Leaving Cert or portfolios or interviews. It’s a really exciting move,” she said.

This new announcement is not the only further education pathway open to students finishing secondary school or for those seeking to return to education.

In 2013, the establishment of Solas brought together and connected post-Leaving Cert courses (PLCs), apprenticeships and traineeships. The body doesn’t only provide and co-ordinate FET options, but it also researches policy in this area, working with the Minister to help develop options and opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to continue their learning journey.

PLCs, which are one or two years long, are often seen as a stepping stone into higher education, according to Ms Walshe.

“If you are doing a pre-university course and if you get a certain level of marks [in your] first-year exams, you can then apply to higher education courses through the Round 0 on the CAO,” she said.

However, the courses are often quite sector specific, which enables those who undertake them to proceed directly into the workforce. An example of this, would be a PLC in the likes of healthcare or chefing.

Ms Walsh said there are more than 20,000 people who do PLCs annually, and they are an excellent option for someone who is unsure about what career they would like to have.

“Talking to learners, it really can be anybody [who pursues further education]. You can have a student who did a very good Leaving Cert and had high points, but the piece about moving away from home or not being sure what they want to do,” she said.

“We also have people who really want to do a particular programme, science is one that springs to mind. So there are pre-university science programmes and they’re looking at that as an alternative way of getting into the higher education programme.”

Traineeships, meanwhile, are generally a year in duration and are aligned with labour market needs.

“You have programmes where you’re developing skills, working very close to the industry and you get work experience as part of that. An example of that would be a beautician, so we have a beautician traineeship where they do a year-long course and they’re learning a lot of the skills they would need to apply when they’re in the workplace then,” Ms Walshe explained.

“There’s generally very positive outcomes from traineeships in terms of progressing to employment.”

Since 2016, the popularity of apprenticeships has skyrocketed. Originally, apprenticeships were only offered in craft areas such as plumbing, bricklaying or electrical work. In recent years, however, the areas in which apprenticeships are available have become so much broader.

Apprenticeships are now available in a whole new suite of areas, including ICT, logistics, healthcare and property.

Between the two types of apprenticeships, there were about 8,500 new registrations for the programme type last year. Overall, there are about 25,000 people doing apprenticeships currently.

“Apprenticeship starts with a job so it’s very linked to the labour market. What we’ve seen is apprenticeships during the crash, the numbers fell really, really low because it was linked to particular industries,” Ms Walshe said.

“I think now the system is so much more wide ranging so it won’t be as impacted as industries coming under pressure. So we have had high numbers before but the numbers are high now because they’re more dispersed over different types of programmes.”

The Covid pandemic affected every part of Irish life, and the education sector is no different. The replacement of Leaving Cert exams with predicted grades resulted in inflated points for college courses. It also saw a drop-off in the number of people applying for PLCs.

The number of new entrants to PLC courses fell by 17 per cent between 2018 (29,291) and 2021 (24,337). However, there were signs of recovery last year when the number of new entrants rose by 1 per cent (to 24,662), the first increase in several years.

“I think the dip was probably related to Covid to be honest, and the way the Leaving Cert went. I know there were additional places in higher education and some students were choosing to go directly into the workforce, so we are seeing an increase in the PLC numbers coming back up,” she said.

Apprenticeships dropped slightly but, overall, remained relatively stable during Covid, Ms Walshe said.

New registrations declined from 6,175 in 2019 to 5,325 in 2020, according to figures from Solas.

However, latest figures show the number of new entrants choosing this route bounced back to more than 8,200 last year, exceeding pre-Covid figures by some 34 per cent.

“I think a lot of that is to do with the fact that a lot of that was to do with the industries apprenticeships are in. They were industries that continued, such as construction and the likes of craft-type apprenticeships like engineering and construction were considered essential.”

Overall, Ms Walshe believes FET is becoming more visible and known so “people are now looking at all of their options and not just focusing on the points system and the one route into education”.

She added: “Thankfully, those conversations are broadening a little bit as students are starting to look at all of the options they have.”