THE good news for students finishing the Leaving Cert this week is that the hard grind put into the exams pays off handsomely not just for getting into college, but in terms of jobs.
The better your Leaving Cert results, the better your chances of getting a job and the higher your earnings once employed, according to a survey published by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) this week. The ESRI undertakes a survey of school leavers each year the latest, undertaken in 1995, shows that each additional grade achieved in the Leaving Cert improves a student's chances of getting a job.
Thus those with four ordinary level Cs have a 7 per cent better chance of finding a job than those with only D grades, for example. Students who do a PLC course after the Leaving are much less likely to end up unemployed than those who do not go beyond the Leaving Cert. Young people's earnings are also directly related to their level of qualifications.
For students finishing the Junior Cert this week, the report provides compelling evidence that it is essential to stay on in school to sit one of the four varieties of Leaving Cert now available higher, ordinary, vocational or applied. Those who leave school with just the Junior Cert have a 30 per cent chance of ending up on the dole, compared to only 14 per cent for those who go on to finish senior cycle.
And doing a VPT or vocational and training course after the Junior Cert does not improve the chances of getting a job almost 40 per cent of those with the Junior Cert and a VPT course ended up unemployed in 1995. The vast majority of students do stay on to sit the Leaving Cert in any case, with 82 per cent of all school leavers now having a senior cycle certificate.
Obviously, with such a large majority of students having at least the Leaving Cert, those dropping out of school without it are at a severe disadvantage.
The report presents over whelming evidence that it pays' to stay on in school. It also shows that it pays to do well in exams and then to go on to higher and further education. Young people going into the jobs" market with a PLC qualification in addition to the Leaving Cert had a 7 per cent better chance of getting a job than those with just the Leaving Cert. And other studies have shown that going on to higher education reduces a young person's chance of being unemployed to around 5 per cent.
Getting into college may seem very difficult to students struggling with Leaving Cert exams right now, but the ESRI report shows that the proportion getting a place has been increasing steadily since 1980. Twice as many school leavers get into college now than in 1980 from 20 per cent to 42 per cent.
In fact, the report makes clear that college is now the main destination of school leavers thus 42 per cent go to college (that is CAO colleges) and 40 per cent get jobs. However, this 40 per cent includes the 18,500 students who do PLC courses. (PLC courses are based in VEC schools, technically second level therefore the PLC students are included in the "school leaver" figure, so the 40 per cent going into jobs includes a large segment of those with Leaving Cert plus PLC qualification.)
It would appear that if you include those going on to PLC courses, the percentage of school leavers going on to higher/further education for 1995 was actually over 60. What emerges is a clear picture of very poor prospects for those dropping out of school without the Leaving Cert and a strong trend towards ever more students going on to higher education or PLC courses. Equally, the picture shows employers clearly favouring those with the higher qualifications and the better grades it pays to study.
