Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

WORK EXPERIENCE IN THE LEAVING CERTIFICATE APPLIED 93For respondents who had been earning money through having a parttimejob, it was important to earn money for their day’s work experience.Donal and Jack, who subsequently dropped out of LCA received moneyfrom employers while on work placement. Jack had been working part-timesince he was thirteen so he was determined to use the work experience toearn money rather than gain experience:I went working tiling for my work experience, so as soon as that was asked of us[by the school] I was going working for money, you know what I mean, it wasn’tabout getting experience, I was gone working for money like, it was something Ialready knew how to do. (Jack, 23, dropped out of LCA, employed)How did you get your work experience?I got it through a fella I knew there, and he got me the start with this builder,just, just on the work experience, on a Tuesday like, that was about €20 orsomething for the day you work like. (Donal, 23, dropped out of LCA,apprentice)However, Jack later regretted not getting a different type of experience:I could have done work experience anywhere and so it was kind of stupid that Ididn’t it would have been nice to see something different, you know? (Jack, 23,dropped out of LCA, employed)6.4AccessingWorkExperienceThere were a number of strategies that the LCA students used to obtainwork experience. These strategies included the use of personal networksand support from the school while others used their own initiative toobtain a work placement.6.4.1 SCHOOL LINKAGESMany of the students spoke about how the school provided a link withpotential placements when searching for job placements as part of the LCAprogramme. School intervention was particularly evident when studentsstruggled to find work or themselves lacked contact with employers orworkplaces:If you couldn’t find one [placement] the school would help you out and they’d findout, they’d get you somewhere, they set you up with something. (David, 21,completed LCA, employed)We did up a CV and we just sent it out, and think she [the teacher] signed it aswell to say that it was work experience with the school, because at the time Ididn’t know what I wanted to do (Barbara, 23, completed LCA,employed)We were recommended by our head teacher, the Head Teacher of the LCA totake four job placements that you are really interested in and that you thought youwanted to carry on and do after school, so you had your four choices, cause you canonly pick one in life like, so she told us to really knuckle down and think aboutit and we did. A lot of them went oh I’m going to pick this now just so I can havetwo weeks free like. A lot of us wouldn’t probably have went into the jobs that we