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Education dilemma

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  • 03-02-2012 10:26am
    #1
    risteard7
    Registered Users Posts: 879 ✭✭✭


    Im 24 left school after my leaving cert and started an apprentiship. It seemed the right thing to do at the time the boom was still going on and getting work seemed no problem. I hated the apprentiship and finished after a year and worked a few small jobs since in retail pubs etc. Now i want to get back to education. My leaving cert is very poor to be honest its pretty worthless but i consider myself clever enough to go back to education. i didnt care at the time i just wanted to get out of school and earn money and work. I regret it now. With the poor leaving cert and my age what are my options?Who do i go to the vec?Would i get into a fetac course then work my way up? Any help would be great i just dont know where to start.........


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  • Options
    #2
    Erper
    Registered Users Posts: 539 ✭✭✭Erper


    risteard7 wrote: »
    Im 24 left school after my leaving cert and started an apprentiship. It seemed the right thing to do at the time the boom was still going on and getting work seemed no problem. I hated the apprentiship and finished after a year and worked a few small jobs since in retail pubs etc. Now i want to get back to education. My leaving cert is very poor to be honest its pretty worthless but i consider myself clever enough to go back to education. i didnt care at the time i just wanted to get out of school and earn money and work. I regret it now. With the poor leaving cert and my age what are my options?Who do i go to the vec?Would i get into a fetac course then work my way up? Any help would be great i just dont know where to start.........


    In fairness if i were you i would probably check fas as they could have good courses.
    As for fetac level its only basic lvl as they dont teach you something you already know.
    Go fir hetac or some uk courses, they seem to be ok.
    With fetac to get a job would be very very hard


  • Options
    #3
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,233 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Its true that you would be unlikely to get employment from many Fetac courses, however its a very good first step to returning to education. It will give you an idea of whether you want to go a particular route before you commit to a 4 year HE course. It will ease you back into a learning environment, and if you choose carefully you could find a link course that would give you a much better chance of getting onto a Higher Education course.

    Go to your local VEC and see what is on offer, and make some enquiries at your local IT and see what links they have to the VEC that might be of interest to you.

    FE colleges will be interviewing (first round) for September fairly soon so its a good time to start investigating.


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    #4
    clarebuyer
    Registered Users Posts: 6 ✭clarebuyer


    Hi. At 24 you qualify as a mature student and do not have to have LC in order to apply for a place in third level. However, you have missed the CAO deadline for this year (Feb 1st) but there are still some places where you can apply for direct entry as a mature student. Also, there are a number of access or foundation courses around the country that will give you a very good grounding in what third level is like.
    The most important first step is to decide what type of course you want to do. Then try to get some guidance counselling from your local VEC to discuss what you need to do to get in to a particular course. Then maybe check out any access programmes available for next September in your area - alot of these will give you direct access to a number of third level courses if you complete them successfully.


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