Choosing a College Course

DanCorb

I'm doing a project on how the process of choosing a college course could be made easier for leaving cert students.

Do you think there is enough information out there to help you choose the right course for you?
If not, what do you think would be more helpful?
Do you use any websites to help you choose a course and do these websites have any flaws?

Thanks guys!

Fringe

There's definitely a lot of websites out there like Qualifax, Fas and the specific college websites. I find a lot of them really helpful and they do give a lot of information if you look closely. One of the things I don't like though is the career prospects mentioned with the course. They're never really specific enough and are really vague. Being vague isn't a problem but when there's not really any specific examples, you're not exactly sure what the course can lead to.

heywhatever

while there may be a lot of websites I find that these websites are not made aware to LC students as much as they could be; I feel a lot of people go into college blind because you can only get so much info about a college course from a prospectus and one open day; I think more is needed..

DanCorb

Fringe wrote: »

There's definitely a lot of websites out there like Qualifax, Fas and the specific college websites. I find a lot of them really helpful and they do give a lot of information if you look closely. One of the things I don't like though is the career prospects mentioned with the course. They're never really specific enough and are really vague. Being vague isn't a problem but when there's not really any specific examples, you're not exactly sure what the course can lead to.

I agree. I think it's because these websites try to tackle EVERY career area. It would be good if the websites focused in on specific areas. For example one area for just business careers, one for just computer careers, etc.

heywhatever wrote: »

while there may be a lot of websites I find that these websites are not made aware to LC students as much as they could be; I feel a lot of people go into college blind because you can only get so much info about a college course from a prospectus and one open day; I think more is needed..

Good points. What do you think these websites could do differently?

Mark200

I found out about half my information just from boards.ie and reading through past topics in the LC forum and the various college forums.

DanCorb

Mark200 wrote: »

I found out about half my information just from boards.ie and reading through past topics in the LC forum and the various college forums.

Do you think it would be good to have one central website with all the information you need rather than going through several sites and forums?

Piste

careersportal.ie is pretty much a one-stop website for career information. There are also links to various college courses too and occupations are grouped under various sections (medical, linguistic etc.)

DanCorb

Fringe wrote: »

One of the things I don't like though is the career prospects mentioned with the course. They're never really specific enough and are really vague.

What do you think would make the search results less vague?

What kind of search criteria would you guys like on a website where you could search for courses?