Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

32 ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE?Me Dad wants me to get it [apprenticeship] and me Mam said they’ll bedelighted if I get it, because there’s no one in it, my dad’s a qualified painter like,so, me brothers haven’t really got any trades, me sister’s, yeah she’s, she wasworking as an assistant secretary or something like that for, where I’m notsure…So it’d be a great achievement. (Andrew, 21, completed LCA,apprentice)In cases where older siblings had gone on to further education thereappeared to be a positive impact on respondents’ post-school pathways. Atthe time of interview Linda was studying in an Institute of Technology. Shewas influenced by her brother who had gone to college and had given heradvice on what to do:My brother, he done university for seven years, he works in Dublin, accountant,he does, he works in a finance place in Dublin, he’s a manager there like, andyeah, he done really well. And then the others all do different jobs like, tiling andyou know, stuff like that, you know. I’d say [brother’s name] got the mosteducation out of everyone. (Linda, 21, completed LCA, student)To summarise, the analyses shown in this section indicate that LCAparticipants have quite a distinctive profile compared to students enteringother Leaving Certificate programmes. They are much more likely to befrom working-class, semi/unskilled manual households and tend to havesimilar educational and occupational aspirations to their parents andsiblings. The next section explores LCA student profile in more detail byanalysing the types of students who take LCA and the motivations andinfluences in their decision making process.4.3Characteristicsof LCAEntrantsIn order to create typologies of students who enter LCA, we identifiedfive types of students who take LCA. Respondents are categorisedaccording to their primary characteristics, although it is acknowledged thatsome have more than one distinguishing feature when entering theprogramme.These include students who:• Struggle with schoolwork at junior cycle;• Have special needs or learning difficulties;• Experience behavioural problems during junior cycle;• Wish to enter the labour force;• Feel misdirected in entering LCA.These categories enable an analysis of the types of students who takeLCA and the main pathways into LCA from junior cycle. This allows us toassess whether the LCA is being taken up by those it was designed for(those at risk of early school leaving or underachieving) or if the dynamicof uptake has changed so that it is now meeting needs it was not originallyintended to meet.