Sir, - I refer to the letter (September 28th) from Mr Brian Duggan of the Department of Education concerning the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP). His letter was in response to an article by your Educational Correspondent (September 24th) which conveyed an impression that the programme was targeted at students who have difficulty with the normal Leaving Certificate.
Mr Duggan tried to clarify that this was not the situation. The confusion may be created by the Department of Education in the way the programme has been packaged for funding purposes. The LCVP belongs to a family of measures contained in the Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 1994-1999, under the heading "Initial education and training." Other measures in this family include youthstart, youthreach, vocational preparation and training and traditional apprenticeship.
Worse still, the section on the new Leaving Certificate Programme states that it is "intended for those who do not wish to proceed directly to third level education, for whom the traditional Leaving Certificate is unsuitable, for young persons who otherwise enter the labour market with inadequate qualifications". This certainly suggests that this programme is a second best option, and not one for students with dreams of going on to third level.
Perhaps this is a reflection of a culture in which vocational education is looked down on. This is a very worrying attitude from an economic development standpoint, as pointed out in numerous reports such as the Culliton Review of Industrial Policy. - Yours, etc.,
Senior associate,
Acorn Associates,
Management training specialists,
19/22 Dame Street,
Dublin 2.