Not all roads lead to university. There are other routes for school-leavers taking their first tentative steps towards the big, bad world of adulthood. Not everyone wants to go straight to academia. And, unfortunately, sometimes those who do are not always offered a place through the Central Applications Office.
Cert, FAS, Teagasc, the Defence Forces and nursing are just some of the other career avenues taken by students after the Leaving Cert. Some students do a one- or two-year Post Leaving Cert course and generally get a job on completion of their course. Some want to work on the land. Some take up an apprenticeship. There's a world of choice out there.
Some 1,100 places are on offer at the 11 agriculture and four horticulture colleges run by Teagasc. According to Dr David O'Connor, head of education at Teagasc, the number of applications to date for the 950 agriculture places and the 150 in horticulture is down on last year and there are likely to be places available in its colleges. Courses include horse breeding, pig production, farm machinery, leisure horticulture and general agriculture and are designed to provide young people with the skills and knowledge to meet the needs of the industry to which they relate.
The Contact Teagasc at 19 Sandymount Avenue, Dublin 4, (tel 01 668 8188) or any of the individual colleges. There has been an increase in demand for CERT-trained students for the hotel, catering and hospitality industry and consequently the number of places on many courses has been increased.
A career in the Defence Forces is another option. The number of cadetships being awarded this year is 58. This figure breaks down into 30 to the Army, two to the Equitation School, 12 to the Air Corps, 14 to the Naval Service (10 executive and four to engineering). Applicants must have a minimum of three grade Cs in higher level and three grade Ds in ordinary level for the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service and five grade Ds in either higher or ordinary level for the Equitation School; attend interviews and undergo physical and medical tests. All cadetships in the Defence Forces are open to male and female applicants on an equal basis. This was not always the case but this year the State's first female pilot was presented with her wings.
A total of 500 individuals have been recruited for general service to the Army and the Naval Service, enlisting initially for five years permanent and seven years reserve service. Apprenticeships in the Army and the Naval Service will be advertised shortly. The first round of offers of places on nursing courses will be made within one week of publication of the Leaving Cert results. There will be 734 general nurse training places, 155 mental handicap nursing places and 201 psychiatric places on offer this year. From now on, all nurse training will follow the new diploma model. The application and selection process will be handled by the Nursing Applications Centre (NAC), with assistance from the Local Appointments Commission at the Office of Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners, Lower Grand Canal Street, Dublin 2.
In June this year, when national apprentice statistics were compiled by FAS, there were almost 7,500 apprentices with Leaving Cert qualifications in training. This represents 55 per cent of all apprentices. The most popular apprenticeship taken up was electrician with over 2,000 Leaving Cert students in the system learning this trade. The second most popular trade is carpentry/joinery. The seven top trades of the 25 are electrician, carpenter/jointer; plumber; motor mechanic; fitter; metal fabricator and bricklayer.
