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

208
From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
I don’t know yet.
Beauty therapy or interior design. (Argyle Street, coed school, mixed
intake)
I want to work with animals so I’ve applied for veterinary medicine
and zoology and then some animal, practical animal courses in England.
(Argyle Street, coed school, mixed intake)
Other students were unsure of the choices that they had made on the
CAO application form. Students stressed the magnitude of their decisions
for their future careers and happiness:
It’s got to be something that you can do, you know, it’s going to be
your final career at the end of the day like … You really want to do
something that is going to make you happy not just money, job interest
… what you want to do. (Argyle Street, coed school, mixed intake)
Other students had made choices but were unsure and felt they might
change their minds at a later date and do something else:
I’ve put accounting as number one on my CAO but I’m not too sure,
I think I might change and do something completely different, I
don’t know.
I put BIS down, business information systems, but I don’t know, I
don’t really want to do anything. (Argyle Street, coed school, mixed
intake)
For some students, their decision would be made by the amount of points
they get in their exams and whether it is enough for the courses they applied
for:
Depends on the points situation.
… You put down a few things and hope. (Argyle Street, coed school,
mixed intake)
Some students in Argyle Street had plans beyond their degree course and
they had begun to think about what post-graduate courses would be suitable
for their career path: