Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

126 ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE?the future and whether she would consider further education, she felt shewould like a good job similar to the one she had but further study was notan option for her:Would you ever think of going to take further study or anothercourse or anything like that?No, not at the minute, no…not when I have a young child now, I wouldn’t,because I’d be leaving him say everyday like, and you probably won’t get him thenuntil whatever time like, you know, you’d be tired after doing all the studying andthings like thatAnd where would you say, where would you see yourself in fiveyears?God I don’t know, well hopefully I’ll be like into a job, but I would like to stayin say a department store and things like that, I’d say that type of work, becauseI enjoyed it like, because, say I liked say to go in do me work say, and then gohome like, like I wouldn’t like to be say going in studying then back home withbooks and studying, like I wouldn’t like that. Then there’d be people that’d loveit but just for me I wouldn’t like it. (Sandra, 23, completed LCA, homeduties)7.4The Impactof Educationand Trainingon LabourMarketOutcomes80In considering their more subjective views of their education experiences,school leavers were asked to evaluate whether they considered theireducation and training experiences to be important in getting their currentjob and in actually carrying out their job. As shown in Figure 7.15, LCAcompleters are the group most likely to rate their educational experiencespositively: two-thirds of LCA leavers consider their education and trainingexperiences to have been important in getting their current job and nearlythree-quarters indicate that their education and training experiences areuseful in carrying out their job.Figure 7.15: Percentage Indicating Education/Training Important in CurrentJob (2001 and 2003 Leavers)706050%40Getting JobCarrying Out Job3020100Low Medium-Low Medium-High HighNo Quals Junior Cert LCA LCE/LCVP LCE/LCVP LCE/LCVP LCE/LCVPSource: School Leavers' Surveys 2002-2004.