Your parents / guardians offer a hugely valuable input when you are choosing your future career - but at the the end of the day, your future career is your own choice and you need to take ownership of your choices. Following a career path that best suits you, is hugely important for your future success.
For senior cycle students, now is the time for you to build on your transition year and 5th year research and experience regarding variety of careers and colleges that are available to you.
Choosing an future path that suits you and your interests
Those who took part in transition year would have, depending on your TY programme, been exposed to a wealth of knowledge regarding careers and the different experiences they offer. Transition year provides an opportunity for students to explore different work experiences, open days, career classes and guest speakers etc,. In addition to this, former TY students will also have experienced how to work in groups carrying out different tasks, organising fundraising events, putting together a TY portfolio and newsletters and trips to various organisations. These trips may have included visits to Dáil Éireann, prisons, zoos, sporting organisations, fun fairs, colleges and companies. During this time you may have also had the opportunity work in different voluntary organisations. Many TY students have taken part in a school musical, which for many is the highlight of their year. Taking part in all of those activities is a huge learning experience, where you would have found out so much about yourself.
From all those experiences you should now be better placed to answer questions regarding yourself. Whether you are someone who likes working in groups, or maybe you prefer to work alone. Do you like project work where you get the chance to show your creative, musical side, or practical side?
If so, this knowledge can help you to explore careers where those skills will be of huge value to an employer, or you may discover that you prefer the idea of becoming an entrepreneur, and would like to run your own business one day.
For 5th year students it is very important to start carrying out research now, and there are many platforms designed to help with this. There are several websites where you can begin your research: Qualifax.ie Careersportal.ie
Classroom Guidance (classroomguidance.ie/ )
Careers and Education News (careersnews.ie ) - which provides daily information on colleges and careers.
College websites.
It is very important also that you make a one-to-one appointment with your school's career guidance counsellor.
Researching colleges
I would highly recommend that you attend open days that are offered by various colleges, and careers fairs. Open days tend to begin in mid-September, but it is also common to have a second open day sometime early in the new year.
These events will provide you with the most up-to-date information about all aspects of college life - not just courses but all the other extra-curricular activities. Many students, for some reason, regardless of the course they are applying for, get a feeling about a college and can actually decide that they do not like the building or the location, and would not like to study there. It is much better that you find this out before you actually accept an offer of a college place in an institution that you do not like, than afterwards.
One in six students drop out of college each year, one of the main reasons is lack of research into the course they applied for, hence the importance of research. Other reasons are loneliness because they miss their family or their school colleagues and find it difficult to connect and make new friends. For some the choice to drop out will be because they have struggled to find appropriate accommodation.
Opportunities
The organisation in Ireland which is responsible for college offers, is the Central Applications Office (CAO ). The facility to apply for courses is now open for 2024 / 2025 prospective students.
You may however wish to study outside Ireland. More and more students are now looking to Europe as a prospect. For those interested in studying in abroad in a European country, EUNICAS (eunicas.ie ) can provide you with further information about the courses on offer. Additionally, a number of students are deciding to study in the UK, looking at courses in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, and the organisation that processes those applications is UCAS (ucas.co.uk ).
If you wish to study medicine in some of the aforementioned countries, there may be early deadlines for applications. The deadline for these applications can come as early as October, meaning that current 6th year students may have already missed the this deadline.
In Ireland, if you wish to study medicine you must sit an exam called the HPAT (Health Professional Aptitude Test ). This exam usually takes place in January / February, and it is one of the more difficult challenges you will meet as part of the medicine entry requirements.
Other courses in Ireland may also require early entry through the CAO, hence the importance of starting your research now.
