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

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From Leaving Certificate to Leaving School
Interviewer: And what about you?
I want to be a beautician and go to college.
Interviewer: Okay and you?
Crèche teacher. (Dixon Street, coed school, working-class intake)
Again, student choices varied from joining the army and hairdressing to
college courses in teaching or business:
Interviewer: What would you like to do after the Leaving Cert?
Well I’m … going into the army.
Interviewer: Okay, yeah?
Business and accounting.
Interviewer: Yeah.
Yeah, hairdressing.
Accountant or teaching. (Dixon Street, coed school, working-class
intake)
For LCA students in Dixon Street, the work experience component of
their course appeared to heavily influence their career decisions and
choices in post-school education:
I went to one [work experience placement] in a beautician’s and I
went to one in a hairdresser’s because I wanted to be a hairdresser.
That’s good that I know I don’t want to be a hairdresser now that I
worked in the beautician. So like being in the surrounding like. It
was good. (Dixon Street, coed school, working-class intake)
School personnel in Dixon Street had noticed how many students wanted
to work in beauty or hairdressing at the school:
You know everyone wants to be a hairdresser or beautician at the
moment (laughing). (Dixon Street, staff, coed school, working-class
intake)