Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

110 ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE?Figure 7.2: Status of School Leavers One Year After Leaving School (2005Leavers)100%80%60%Inactivity40%Labour MarketStudent/Training20%0%Low Medium-Low Medium-High HighNo Quals Junior Cert LCA LCE/LCVP LCE/LCVP LCE/LCVP LCE/LCVPSource: School Leavers’ Survey 2007.7.2.1 LCA SCHOOL LEAVERS AND UNEMPLOYMENT ONEYEAR AFTER LEAVING SCHOOLTo answer this question we focus first on the relative unemployment riskamong labour market entrants from each of the leaver groups, with a viewto assessing how well our LCA completers compare to the other leavergroups. Overall, it is clear that staying in school to complete the LCAprogramme does confer valuable labour market skills and enhance thechances of securing employment. While the Junior Certificate leaver grouphas an unemployment rate of 22 per cent one year after leaving school, theunemployment rate for the LCA completers is just 14 per cent (Figure 7.3).Across many of the leaver groups females have higher unemploymentrates, a pattern which also holds for the LCA group, but is less notable.However, it should be borne in mind that these surveys span a period ofexceptional economic boom in Ireland and one in which the constructionsector in particular grew dramatically, hence boosting the employmentchance of male school leavers in particular.When we focus attention on the most recent survey of 2005 schoolleavers we find that LCA leavers have higher unemployment rates thanother Leaving Certificate leavers regardless of how well they perform in theexam (Figure 7.4). While 18 per cent of LCA completers in the labourmarket are unemployed one year after leaving school, the figure is less than11 per cent for each of the LCE/LCVP performance groups. In commonwith the pattern for the early leaver groups in particular, female LCAleavers have a significantly higher unemployment rate than their malecounterparts. It appears that young people leaving school havingparticipated in the LCA programme are not competing particularly well