Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

PATHWAYS INTO LCA 55I didn’t want to do it because it only came, it was only like three or four years inthe school.Did you know anybody who’d ever done it before?Yeah, but there was always this kind of very stereotypical view of it that peoplewho did it were like….So [the guidance counsellor] said to me, oh I think thiscould be the best option for you, I was just like, no I don’t want to do it. Andthen I was like, no, I’ll work harder like and I knew that I had the ability towork harder, I just didn’t want to because I was in school like. And then myfriends ended up doing it as well and some of them weren’t even asked, they reallywanted to do it and I was like if they’re all doing it, sure I might as well. (Fiona,25, completed LCA, employed)Barbara’s decision was influenced by her group of friends who she felthad struggled with the same subjects as her in junior cycle and wereattracted to the LCA to the pre-employment nature of the course:There was a couple of us interested in doing it and same with my friend, shewould have been in a lot of my classes as well, Irish, French…Struggling with thesame stuff and because her cousin was doing it in [name of village] she said go,it’s great. (Barbara, 23, completed LCA, employed)An important feature that arose in the interviews, however, was the viewof LCA as an ‘easy option’ by some respondents. Described as a ‘doss’,‘dead handy’ or an ‘easy ride’, the programme was seen as a way offinishing school without homework, studying and stress. Linda and Donalfelt that many of their classmates opted for the LCA because they thoughtit would be easier than LCE:People thought it would be a doss two years, you know, people in my classanyway, that’s the way a lot of them were acting as if it was a doss two years like,you know. (Linda, 21, completed LCA, student)Just doss, everyone thought it was a doss like. (Donal, 23, dropped out ofLCA, apprentice)All you do is go to school and you basically pass, so like, everyone was going to dothat like, you know what I mean. (Roy, 22, dropped out of LCA,unemployed)However, other respondents complained about this attitude to the LCAand believed that it prevented dedicated students from learning:It stopped a lot of people like, we had four people on this side, four would be onthis side say and we wanted to work and they were pretending it was a doss class,you know like what I mean like, back and forth. (Linda, 21, completedLCA, student)