IT will probably be no surprise to CAO/CAS applicants that there are jobs a plenty in the hotel and catering area.
This has long been the case but with hotel and restaurant development thriving, such employment is even more buoyant than before.
In addition, expansion continues in industrial catering, that is workplace based catering services.
Those who acquire a recognised qualification in hotel or catering management or supervision should have little trouble in getting a job.
These are also qualifications which "travel" well and many graduates get good opportunities abroad.
Both the DIT's Cathal Brugha Street campus and the RTC Galway are highly specialised in hotel and catering and both enjoy an excellent reputation.
They have both degree and cert/diploma level courses.
The RTCs in Cork and Waterford also have a supervisory certificate and Athlone has both a certificate and a diploma.
. Travel and Tourism: Two foreign languages are obligatory and this qualification might also be useful for jobs in the growing international telereservations/ booking industry in Ireland.
There is a general growth in tourism and travel jobs but these tend to be more difficult to identify and it is sometimes difficult to decide which courses to follow.
Colleges report that business and arts graduates are getting jobs in tourism related areas, for example. Heritage studies at Galway RTC (and Castlebar campus) is geared at the heritage/interpretative centre local tourism office jobs market.
It is an interesting arts type course at cert/diploma level with modules in archaeology and genealogy. Folk studies in Tralee RTC might also be of interest.
The Cork RTC course is more business based and the DIT one is strongly geared towards travel agency procedures; both include languages. Courses such as accommodation/languages in the RTC Galway and its offshoot campus in Castlebar are aimed at the receptionist end of the business, but also at accommodation booking, reservations, billing etc. Waterford RTC has a tourism and hospitality studies course.
. Recreation/sport: There has been big growth in health and leisure centres, sports centres and fitness training. Sporting organisations are becoming more professional and now employ professional coaches and administrators. This has meant more job opportunities for young people with health and recreation management skills. Waterford RTC has a successful diploma in recreation and leisure with a follow on degree. It is evenly divided into administration/business and sport/leisure activities and has a good reputation. The DIT has a diploma in leisure management and Cork RTC a certificate in recreation and leisure.
UL's sports science degree is a first in this discipline and looks promising. Some of those trained as PE teachers also enter the health and leisure business.
. MedialCommunications: There are never many jobs in the media. It has, however begun to open up, particularly at the visual/audio communications end in film, video, sound recording. It is certainly true that there are opportunities there for young people now which were not there in the past. There are more opportunities but securing a job may not be any easier.
With new television and radio services on the way and the continuing trend in Irish made films there should be a trickle of jobs available.
There is no great expansion in print journalism; indeed the collapse of the Irish Press has resulted in large scale unemployment among existing journalists. Opportunities tend to be in giveaway newspapers, trade magazines and the like.
The Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design has a strong range of film/video related courses with two follow on degrees also available in the area of film and video studies.
DCU's communications - degree is a fairly academic course, while the DIT's communications degree in video and broadcasting is more practical.
Some students, of course, will opt first for an arts degree and there are several post grad opportunities. UCD has a film studies postgrad course, Galway RTC has video production and DCU has communications.
In journalism, DCU and the DIT have degree courses on the CAO form, though other students may prefer to take a degree in whatever discipline they find most interesting, following this up with a postgraduate journalism qualification at either of the above or at UCG.
The DCU postgrad course is probably still the most prestigious route.
Note that the journalism course (DT302) listed on the cert/diploma list in the CAO/ CAS handbook has been cancelled; it is replaced by a degree course FJ353 JRN which is not listed in the CAO handbook but can be entered on the form by applicants.
. Construction/Architecture: The jobs situation is good for architecture. Similarly, the construction industry is booming with a lot of building in progress.
The longer term prospects also look good with a lot of infrastructural building work coming on stream through EU structural funds money; the proposed light rail system for Dublin is an example.
There is quite a demand for people with most qualifications in the construction area.
The DIT's Bolton Street campus is highly specialised in all aspects of the industry; there are studies courses aimed at a number of different levels of the industry right throughout the sector.
At degree level both RTC Limerick and Waterford offer construction management degrees.
The job placement rate for newly qualified architects was one of the best of all faculties at 92 per cent in recent figures.
Architects - and indeed construction industry as a whole - are in the classic boom or gloom mould with plenty of jobs when things are booming and the reverse when the boom tapers off.
There have been years in which up to 80 per cent of all architectural graduates have emigrated but well over 50 per cent are getting jobs at home at the moment.
There are two architecture degrees, in UCD and the DIT. Bolton Street.
There are several architectural technician courses but these do not provide for transfer to professional architecture.
Cork RTC and RTC Limerick have a three year diploma in architectural technology and Waterford has a one year post certificate diploma which provides for transfer to an architectural technology degree course in Britain.
Auctioneering and valuation surveying are doing quite well at the moment, though the number of jobs is not enormous and quantity surveyors seem to be doing pretty well also.