Two years ago, when she opened her Leaving Cert results, Amy Moore (20) learned she had narrowly missed out on her first-choice course – psychology in National College of Ireland (NCI).
“I kind of always knew I wasn’t going to get the points in the Leaving Cert because [they] were really high. So, I began looking at Post Leaving Cert (PLC) courses to do that were in psychology. I found one in Coláiste Dhúlaigh in Coolock [Dublin].
“I applied for that before my Leaving Cert points came out and I kind of knew that I wasn’t going to get the course that I really wanted to. I still had hopes but when I opened my results, I didn’t get the points so at least I knew I had the second option of the PLC.”
Amy fell 11 points short of the course and admits it was disheartening on the day. Still, she entered the course in a college 10 minutes away from home. Accessibility is a big benefit of this route, with Post Leaving Cert courses available in more than 200 institutions countrywide.
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“I started the PLC in September, the same as every other college student,” she says. “The PLC that I did basically gave me college life. It had college activities and freshers’ events, so it felt like I was in college, and I didn’t feel like I was far behind my friends when I was doing it.
“My course was really big at the start. I think there were 60 people. As time went on, people started to drop out because they realised they didn’t like the course. That’s another good thing about doing a PLC. You can see if you actually want to do the subjects that you’re interested in.”
For Moore, the course offered assurance that psychology was the right path. She secured a level five on the National Framework of Qualifications and filled out a new list of Central Applications Office (CAO) preferences. Places are kept aside for PLC applicants on a wide variety of courses in the State, provided they meet the Quality and Qualifications Ireland requirements.
Moore has just learned that she again missed out on the course in NCI after CAO round zero offers were extended. However, she has accepted a place in higher education. “I’m going to Maynooth to do an arts degree, and I’ll be pursuing psychology, and then I’ll be able to do my master’s in psychology as well,” she says. “Not a lot of places have psychology as an arts degree, so Maynooth is really well structured to have that as part of theirs.”
Though she could be disappointed about NCI, she is happy to do a PLC. Completing a placement was particularly informative, as it gave her a better understanding of the type of work she’d like to do in psychology down the line. That opportunity isn’t available for level eight students until they are further into their studies.
“[The PLC] helped me understand that I truly want to do psychology. And, hopefully, it will help me when I start my first year and make it easier to get into a routine of how it works,” says Moore. “It also helped me learn how college works by the independence it gives you and how drastically different it is from secondary school.”
