Poor educational prospects at 19. No idea what to do!

LegacyUser

Greetings, I'm a 19 year old living in Dublin. I had a pretty bad leaving cert, 6 subjects all at pass level with one fail in leaving cert ordinary level maths.

I did a PLC course last year after my leaving cert. I completed however I would never do another PLC course again because at least the one I did was completely useless ( sending a email was one of the assignments) and I felt it didn't really challenge nor educate me. I actually did enroll in the second year of the course, but my dad got diagnosed with cancer in September so I dropped out because I missed lots of weeks.

Since I had a part time job and don't drink nor smoke, I have quite a bit of money saved up and I was really considering looking into studying abroad HOWEVER looking at the eunicas website, it basically says that every single college / university in Europe requires you to have at least two higher level subjects.

I'm wondering am I completely f*cked for going into third level because of my bad leaving cert results? Any place in Europe that would accept these results for a economics or some sort of computer related degree?

I feel really hopeless now as I feel like I'm wasting away my future. I know that the application deadlines for many universities abroad closes very soon and I couldn't survive doing nothing again for another year. As I mentioned, I'm extremely reluctant to do another PLC as I thought I didn't learn anything. Repeating the leaving cert is another non option as I don't like that sort of exam structure.

Thanks for your help.

Leo12

Hi I'm so sorry to hear about your Dad. You poor thing that PLC course sounds awful! You are certainly not wasting your potential. What would you like to do ? If you fancy a change of scene from Dublin maybe check out ITs across the country. Studying abroad can be very expensive and don't forget that most colleges are part of the Erasmus scheme so you will be able to study for a semester abroad. You still have time to go to any open days or open nights colleges are having ATM so maybe you could cram as many in before the Cao deadline? And don't worry about the leaving cert, it's a Medieval way of assessing someone, basically it's just memory test, not a sign of intelligence. College is the total opposite, you are encouraged to read and to think independently as much as possible. Good luck !

Meathlass

The PLC course may qualify you for some courses aboard but I'd worry about your fail of OL Maths - that might make it difficult to get into Economics or Computer courses which are very maths based.

There are lots of ways to get into college now and you're certainly not going to waste your life away. You could do a Level 6 course in an IT, transferring then to a degree with a chance to study abroad - lots of ITs in particular have courses like this.

I'd recommend talking to an experienced guidance counsellor. Contact their regulatory body to get some names and maybe advice on who can best help you. Yes, it will probably cost you money to sit down with them for a session but it will be the best money you've spend so far. You need to know what your end dream course/job is and they will help you work back the steps to find out where you should start.

Typer Monkey

Could you go back and repeat your leaving cert while continuing in your part time job? You are still young so please don't be writing off your prospects just yet! I think you should also think about the career/job you feel you are suited too and interested in and then choose your subjects and potential college course based on working in that direction, rather just picking a course for the sake of going to college.

LegacyUser

I was in a similar situation. I did very bad in my leaving. less than 200 points. I just had no interest in it. I did a PLC admin course so was able to get jobs because of that. Mainly call centre work. I went college as a mature student at 23 and am now fully qualified 2 years and working in software. I am glad I didn't go straight to college after school. My sisters did, one of them got 500 points in the leaving and a 1.1 in her degree and a 1.2 in her masters and is in a career she hates and it is because she had to chose her career path straight out of school.

My advice would be to think about what career you would like and find a good PLC or short course that relates to that area and try to get into that. A bad leaving cert seems like the end of the world now but it really isn't. I was very embarrassed about it until I got back into college and could show my marks from there to prove that I wasn't stupid... i just happened to be lazy back then.

Shrap

^^ Your post here is giving me hope, so I hope the OP takes heart too! My eldest is in LC year and honestly hasn't a notion of working towards it - it seems pointless to him now (despite be very clever) and I've been warning him about how he could find himself in exactly the OP's position this time next year or in a few years. However, I realise that a scraped through LC is not the end of the world, or the road.

16/17 is such an awful stage to have to pick something you want to do anyway. And 23 is quite a long time to wait till your LC isn't your only selling point. It's a crisis for young people like yourself OP, when during those years (if you didn't either choose right/do quite well enough/feel motivated enough to head for a direct goal) you might then find something you want to do, but don't have the means to do it just yet.

I'd advise that you try and take the opportunity of being so young to try and upskill in many different areas. Find out what you want, add to your CV. Everything you try now will most likely help you with finding out what you don't want to do, but you will also learn a lot. If you get a part-time job, but also volunteered in a few different areas of interest, in three years you will have many selling points with which to get into a college place of your choice, in an area you're interested in.

Best of luck to you OP. Try everything you can and have as much fun as possible. You may be taking a better route to something worthwhile, like the poster above describes.

LegacyUser

Yes Sharp I'm sure my parents were a bit worried about what I was going to do at the time too.

My husband is now in a situation where he wants to change career as there is no work in Ireland for him and is going to go to college at 32 for a 4 year course. He was a bit worried about starting a new career so late until he realised a good friend of his from work started again in that career at 43.

I was very happy at college. I didn't have to live as a poor student as I had saved up a good bit of money from the years I had worked before hand. As well as that lots of people were repeating and dropping out as they picked a course they didn't fully research or they were enjoying the freedom of being away from home a bit too much.

It also helps in getting work after college as you will have much more work experience than the others that went to college straight after school.

Shrap

was in same situation wrote: »

I was very happy at college. I didn't have to live as a poor student as I had saved up a good bit of money from the years I had worked before hand. As well as that lots of people were repeating and dropping out as they picked a course they didn't fully research or they were enjoying the freedom of being away from home a bit too much.

Ya, that was me There's a lot to be said for going to college when you really want to, not just when you think you should.

Claw Hammer

Joesph_129 wrote: »

Greetings, I'm a 19 year old living in Dublin. I had a pretty bad leaving cert, 6 subjects all at pass level with one fail in leaving cert ordinary level maths.

I did a PLC course last year after my leaving cert. I completed however I would never do another PLC course again because at least the one I did was completely useless ( sending a email was one of the assignments) and I felt it didn't really challenge nor educate me. I actually did enroll in the second year of the course, but my dad got diagnosed with cancer in September so I dropped out because I missed lots of weeks.

Since I had a part time job and don't drink nor smoke, I have quite a bit of money saved up and I was really considering looking into studying abroad HOWEVER looking at the eunicas website, it basically says that every single college / university in Europe requires you to have at least two higher level subjects.

I'm wondering am I completely f*cked for going into third level because of my bad leaving cert results? Any place in Europe that would accept these results for a economics or some sort of computer related degree?

I feel really hopeless now as I feel like I'm wasting away my future. I know that the application deadlines for many universities abroad closes very soon and I couldn't survive doing nothing again for another year. As I mentioned, I'm extremely reluctant to do another PLC as I thought I didn't learn anything. Repeating the leaving cert is another non option as I don't like that sort of exam structure.

Thanks for your help.

I have a family member who only got 5 passes in the leaving. He now has 3 degrees and owns 9 properties, most of them outright including 3 in Dublin 6.
He did it by getting into a part time third level diploma course and when he passed that, got into a degree course. He used that to get into another degree course which had a minimum entry requirement of 6 higher B grades in the leaving. He got a degree from that which let him get into the third degree. He now has a respectable professional career as well as being quite wealthy. The leaving is not the be all and end all.

castaway_lady

The leaving cert only determines your academic future to a certain extent. It definitely does not determine how successful you can be in third level education. You sound like youre a combination of restless and frustrated. But the good thing is that you can fix that and its the right time of the year to be planning forward. The operative word there being "planning". You're spending too much time and brain space analysing the past. The Leaving cert is long since over. The PLC course is too. Some plcs are more useful than others definitely but its mostly about what you do with them. If you got a plc award though you can still use that to access 3rd level here.

You're dead right to be looking at college. But being so focused on going abroad for your degree is putting yourself under a whole additional layer of pressure and expense. You need to be looking at courses here that have an option on a year abroad or a work placement abroad. Your college focus at this stage needs to be on finding the right degree or higher cert/ordinary degree that you can use your plc results or leaving results to get into. Once you're in, work your ass off and erase the past results. You're 19! You have the value of learning from the approach you could have taken to your academic past and applying that to whats controllable i.e. your future. Apply for the cao and spread your options wisely. Just because a course has low points which many higher cert institute of technology courses would have, doesn't mean it wont take you somewhere worthwhile. But as well as CAO apply for another plc as a backup. And if you have the financial resources look at private colleges too.