Demand for places in teacher-training courses has declined dramatically despite a high-profile campaign by the Department of Education to attract more men into the profession.
New figures, based on options chosen by Leaving Cert students last month, suggest that CAO point requirements could increase for areas like nursing and medicine where student demand is strong.
However, career experts predict points could decline for teaching and other areas like engineering and business, where the number of applications has declined. Points for most arts higher-degree courses are likely to be unchanged, except in UCD where the demand has soared.
In a trend which will dismay Government and business, there has been a decline of over 5 per cent in the number of Leaving Cert students opting for higher-level degree courses in engineering and technology.
There has also been no increase in demand for courses in computing; less than 1 per cent of students securing 450 points or more in the Leaving Cert now take places in computer courses at third-level.
Demand for science degrees is up by 6 per cent, but the overall number of students opting for higher-level degree courses in this area (just over 5,000) is still very low.
The new figures show an 11 per cent decline in the number of Leaving Cert students opting for primary teacher training.
Although the figures does not distinguish between male and female applicants, the pattern will be a disappointment to Minister for Education Mary Hanafin, who launched a marketing campaign to attract more male teachers in January.
Last year men accounted for just 11 per cent of students in teacher-training colleges. The decline is continuing despite a starting salary of over €30,000.
Among the colleges, UCD is the big winner in the CAO figures, with an increase of over 10 per cent in applications for higher-level degree courses.
The college, which is offering a huge range of new, modularised courses, is thought to have spent over €250,000 on a marketing campaign in the run-up to last month's CAO deadline.
Demand for courses at the University of Limerick has also increased by over 6 per cent.
The college has benefited because of innovative new courses in new student-friendly areas like music production and computer games.
Brian Mooney, of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, says colleges will have to be more imaginative to attract students at a time when fewer school-leavers are chasing more places at third-level.
As expected, the health sector continues to boom. Demand for nursing places is up by more than 8 per cent, and there are also strong increases in the numbers applying for medicine (7.5 per cent) and dentistry (5.5 per cent).
The figures also show a decline of 7 per cent in the number of students taking ordinary level and degree courses, largely because of a fall in the number of school-leavers.
This trend is especially serious for many of the 14 institutes of technology, some of whom are already struggling to fill places.
