THE waiting is over. The majority of Leaving Cert students will have got a college place offer or two in this morning's post and those not obtaining an offer will have also been written to. The satisfaction rating should be good. Last year, almost 75 per cent of applicants got an offer on the first round and there is no reason to expect that the success rate will be lower this year indeed, the reduced number of applicants could well improve it.
So, the proportion of students with no offer will be relatively small. Increasingly, the issue has become not one of if I get an offer" but twill I accept this offer?"
This may seem strange considering the scramble for college places. But many students use their full 20 choices and apply for 10 degree and 10 diploma/ certificate courses on the CAO form. They can then find that they have an offer of a course to which they haven't given much thought as it was a lower preference others who may have had their hearts set on a degree find themselves with a diploma or certificate course on offer. The agonising then begins about whether to accept or not.
Students who have talked to us on the phone over the years often know very little about diploma/certificate courses, in particular and are not aware of the great potential of these courses in terms of job opportunities but also of the possibilities of ending up with a degree through the ladder of opportunity route.
Virtually all two year certificate courses allow students to advance to a third diploma year there is then a wide network of one year follow on degree courses which allow the student to get a degree qualification in four years as fast as through direct entry to a degree course in some cases.
If you look on an RTC certificate or diploma course as a means of getting a degree in stages, it puts it in a different perspective.
. REPEATS
STUDENTS who are thinking of repeating in order to increase their points for a particular degree course would do well to look at what diploma/certificate courses are on offer first. If you can get a degree in business studies, engineering, computing, or science through advancing from a certificate to a diploma and then on to a follow on degree course, is it really worth wasting the time repeating the Leaving Cert in order to try for the points to go directly on to a degree course? It's a question well worth considering.
We are surprised at the number of people on our phone line this year who repeated the Leaving Cert and did not improve their grades. Department of Education figures show that, nationally, the number of students repeating has fallen, indicating that more students are accepting what they are offered in the RTCs and using it as a stepping stone to further qualifications. Certainly, the take up rate for diploma and certificate courses was considerably up in both the DIT and the RTCs last year.
For the student who is still relatively young, repeating can be a maturing experience, providing an extra year in which to perhaps take a wider look at the different career and college options and maybe spread the options more widely and more cleverly the following year. But for the student who is in any way apprehensive about going back into the same routine for yet another year, do just stop and ask yourself first is it necessary? Is there another way in which I can advance and still end up with a good higher education qualification?
. PLCs
ANOTHER advancement route for students who have not got their desired CAO/CAS place offer in the post this morning is through registering for a PLC course (Post Leaving Certificate). In many cases these provide good job qualifications in themselves but they also offer a transfer route to certificate/diploma courses in RTCs and the DIT and in some cases directly into degree courses in the UK.
Again, taking the PLC route may be preferable to repeating the Leaving Cert. There are 1,000 RTC/DIT certificate places reserved for students with PLC qualifications this year, irrespective of their Leaving Cert points. This is a very attractive prospect.
One example of what a PLC can offer is Ballyfermot Senior College (01-6269421) in Dublin. The college has just got sanction for a new two year Certificate in Teleservices. This course has been designed in collaboration with the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) to help meet chronic manpower shortages in this area. The IDA estimates some 5,000 jobs being created in telephone based sales, marketing, international reservations/ bookings and computer advisory and support services.
These jobs all require a very good command of a foreign language and there simply are not enough people around with such qualifications. There are already companies who simply cannot fill all the jobs they have in these areas, the IDA says.
The course involves two periods of placement abroad during the two years and financial assistance is provided towards these sojourns. The course offers a French and a German stream and applicants must have this subject to Leaving Cert level.
The course covers business, management, computer literacy, sales, communications and other areas as well as intensive language work.
. RECHECKS
RECEIPT of the offers will have concentrated many students' minds on whether to seek a recheck or not Points Race continues to get many queries on this topic. Many students and parents are finding it difficult to get their school principal to sanction a re-check request in the absence of the subject teacher.
The Department of Education introduced the earlier deadline in order to speed up the re-check results and the Minister has said that she may allow flexibility of a few days but it seems to be a real problem forcing schools to process re-checks before they have reopened.
In response to many calls, no, you cannot be downgraded during a re-check. And a student who is upgraded and thus becomes eligible for a CAO/CAS course is guaranteed a place on that course. Should the course be full by the time the student is upgraded, a guaranteed place will be held for her/him in the following year. Most upgraded students get their entitled place immediately.
. TALLAGHT RTC
TALLAGHT is operating an open day on Friday for students who have got an offer of a place at the college. Between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. students (and parents if they like) can visit the campus, look around and get advice and information on the courses it sounds like a very useful exercise.
. UCAS VACANCIES
ACCORDING to UCAS, despite the increased level of offer confirmations in British colleges, there are a record 20,000 courses showing vacancies in the clearing system. Virtually none is in sought after areas such as medicine, veterinary, physiotherapy or law though there are many in different engineering, science, arts and social science disciplines.
Again, it is worth stopping to think before rushing across the water. Many RTC and DIT certificate/diploma courses now provide a smooth transfer into degree courses in the UK as indeed do a growing number of PLCs. Rather than rushing to Britain straight away, perhaps the student might be better advised to take that RTC or PLC place and remain at home for another two or three years before moving abroad.
. CAO POINTS
THE official line is that the points are not available until they are published in the newspapers tomorrow morning. But a number of students who spoke to Points Race yesterday had already got points from college admissions offices. So, if you are keen to find out, we'd suggest it might be worth your while to ring the relevant college admissions office and ask them.
The fact that admissions offices released some points yesterday underlines the absurdity of the points not being available for publication today, when students get their offers. Why the extra day's wait?