Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

SCHOOL EXPERIENCES AND LEARNING PROCESSES AMONG LCA PARTICIPANTS 59offering LCA, although access to many other vocational specialism coursesdepends on the school attended.Figure 5.1: Proportion of Schools Providing Selected Subjects, 2007Arts VisualReligious EducationFrenchScienceArts DramaArts MusicSpanishGermanItalianArts Dance0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0%Source: DES Education Statistics database.Figure 5.2: Proportion of Schools Providing Vocational Specialisms, 2007Hotel Catering and TourismInformation and Communication TechnologyGraphics and Construction StudiesEngineeringCrafts and DesignChildcare/Community CareAgriculture/HorticultureOffice Administration and Customer CareActive Leisure StudiesHair and BeautyTechnologySource: DES Education Statistics database.0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80Previous research in the Irish context has indicated that students aremore positive about subjects with a practical orientation and greater handsoninvolvement, and that such approaches serve to foster studentengagement in learning (Smyth et al., 2007). In fact, access to ‘practical’ orvocational subjects was a motivation for many students choosing the LCAprogramme (see Chapter 4). The balance between subject areas was seen bythe young people interviewed as better than in the other Leaving Certificateprogrammes:%