From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

Guidance and Decision-Making in Sixth Year 163
During interviews with young people in the case-study schools, the
direct influence of parents in the decision-making process was evident
among some students. For some students from mixed and middle-class
schools, certain occupations such as engineering were ‘in the family’ so
students applied for the same course in a number of universities and institutes
for technology to make sure they were successful:
My dad’s an engineer and I’m good at drawing and my brother’s an
engineer and it’s sort of in the family, I guess. (Belmore Street, girls’
school, mixed intake)
For other students, their parents had brought them to their place of work
and this had sparked their interest in pursuing relevant college courses:
My dad is an engineer and he brought me to work a few times and
showed me around and I kind of liked it so. (Argyle Street, coed
school, mixed intake)
In some cases, the choices of students differed from what their parents
wanted them to do:
Well I really like business, like I do Accounting and Economics,
they are like my favourite subjects and my mum wanted me to do
French because she thinks it’s like EU and the age of modern languages
and all that. (Fig Lane, coed school, middle-class intake)
In addition to their parents, some students relied on the experiences and
advice of their older siblings and wider family. In some cases, the negative
experiences of siblings in college informed what courses students
applied for. One student interviewed was advised by her sister to apply
for a general arts degree as she had taken a course in speech therapy and
did not like it:
Interviewer: How have you decided what course you might do?
My sisters.
… Yeah, one of them did speech therapy and she didn’t like it so she
was just saying to do arts and then you can do whatever you want after.
(Fig Lane, coed school, middle-class intake)