Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

WORK EXPERIENCE IN THE LEAVING CERTIFICATE APPLIED 97Would the teachers be involved in the placement, would theymonitor it at all?Yeah, there was one teacher, there was, the year head, that he used to go out to theemployers and fill out, take them a form and get them to fill it out to say howwe’re doing, how we’ve, like, if we’re getting on okay and get him to work on that.(Tim, 21, completed LCA, unemployed)The teacher would be called in, once a week because there was two weeks, so oncea week the teacher would call in to me to see that there were no difficulties or anyproblems and that we were alright.And they would talk to the employer then?Talk to the employer and talk to you to see if you were still comfortable with itand yeah it was great. (Mary, 22, completed LCA, home duties)However, students in other schools felt that their teachers were not soinvolved in the monitoring of work experience placements:Did your teacher monitor your work placement, did they comeout and check out on you or….?No, no, you had a booklet to bring with you, and you’d get someone at the workplacement to fill it out. But when we’d go back in, the careers guidance, hewouldn’t even look at it to see how you’re getting on, he’d just look at it everycouple of weeks. (Linda, 21, completed LCA, student)It was evident that the work diary was a central component of the workexperience placement for most of the students. It was also evident thatemployers had a major role in this part of the assessment. The majority ofrespondents had to submit work diaries detailing the skills they felt theyhad attained after each day to their career guidance teacher. This wouldoften be followed by a phone call or visit to their employer:Well you got a form and they had to fill it in, what time you came in at every dayand what time you left at and what, what way, like how good were you at doing,you know like the everyday they’d mark good or excellent you know on the cardlike. (Rebecca, 21, dropped out of LCA, home duties)6.6Post WorkExperience:Reflection onTasksCarried Outand SkillsAcquiredA central component of the LCA is for students to reflect on the learningoutcomes of their work experience placement. In the interviews, studentswere asked about whether they had learned anything from their workexperience placement. On the whole, the majority of LCA students werevery reflective about their placements and were able to identify specificlearning outcomes or skills and generic skills that they had acquired.Aoibhinn had her first experience of work in a car sales office. She was ableto clearly articulate the tasks undertaken and skills achieved in the job. Shealso indicated that during the placement she felt like one of the staff:I was answering the phone, filing, sending, putting invoices into envelopes,stamping the envelopes, different things like that…I got some customer serviceskills, with people coming in the door and being on the phone and then skills thenworking with a team and working with other people. It also improved myconfidence. I enjoyed it because the staff were friendly and they took me on board,