Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

100 ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE?6.7The role ofWorkExperiencein CareerDecisionMakingIt would seem that the role of work experience in career decision makingdiffered according to whether career aspirations were in place before thework experience placement. While some students had a clear idea aboutwhat they wanted to do after school before entering the placement, otherswere less clear. Students who knew what they wanted to do after leavingschool could match their LCA work experience to their career aspirations.Graham who came from a farming background and had worked part-timeon the farm, had four work experience placements whilst on the LCAprogramme and was able to reflect on which trade he preferred. He hadoriginally started out wanting to be a carpenter but found that this was notfor him:My first work experience was carpentry, it was fitting kitchens but I didn’t reallylike that because it came all pre assembled all you had to do was drill it onto thewall like you know, it wasn’t really carpentry. My second work experience wasbricklaying and sure that’s what I’m doing now…I got my career out of it like.(Graham, 22, completed LCA, apprentice)David knew that he wanted to follow the ‘trades route’. He had fourwork experience placements in all and used them to career sample amongthe trades:I got a carpentry apprenticeship with the fella I went on the placement with. Iwent with a tiler and then in sixth year, I was in a factory and then I went inwith the carpenter again and he kept me on after that. I was sort of working withhim the whole way through for the first time. The school knew him, the fella whoI ended up working for. (David, 21, completed LCA, employed)According to David, the work experience placement was particularlyuseful as he got an apprenticeship out of the first placement he completedin the first year of the programme. For others it was particularly clear thatthe work experience placement had a role in leading to occupationalaspirations. It was evident from many of the interviews that careers werepursued based on the work experience. Derek had always known that hewanted to do something practical, so as part of his work experience heworked in a garage and loved it. After completing the LCA he worked intwo different garages. Linda joined LCA because she felt that she wouldnot be able for the LCE. While Linda had no specific career in mind, whenit came to senior cycle, she began to consider business as a career. Lindaused her work experience placement to experience the world of business.However, there was a constraint on her further career. She could not getinto a course offering business with her LCA because she did not have thepoints and so did a Tourism PLC course which eventually led to a BusinessAdministration course. Ronan outlined that he had a very helpful careerguidance teacher who guided him through his decision making. After hiswork experience placement in an architect’s office, Ronan went to collegeto pursue architecture after completing the LCA. Before the workexperience he had not considered architecture at all:And did the work experience help you in terms of the kind ofcareer you would aspire to go into then?Yeah, I went to college to do that after school. That was the start of that interest,yeah. Once I had done the first work experience that was it for me, I wanted to bean architect.