Each extra year learning can raise earning power by 15%

Over the next few weeks more than 60,000 applicants will register with the Central Applications Office in Galway.

Most will be sitting the Irish Leaving Certificate in June for the first time, but they will be joined in the CAO process by several thousand students who are repeating the Leaving in the hope they will secure more points than last year.

There are also other kinds of applicants. There will be those who received sufficient points for their preferred course but who failed to meet a specific subject entry requirement.

There will also be those, usually the so-called gap-year group, who deferred a place offered in August 2003. Although their place is secure, they must submit an application in 2004 to the CAO, listing only the deferred place.

Failure to apply, or the inclusion of more than the deferred course on the application form, will result in the guaranteed place being forfeited. These applicants are also perfectly entitled to use the points they secured last year to compete for a place on any other course, but they must give up their guaranteed place in order to do so.

The CAO will also receive thousands of applications from students who are completing post-Leaving Certificate courses and who will be competing for places reserved for those with FETAC level two awards. Also applying will be many thousands of adults aged over 23 seeking to enter third-level education for the first time. The Government has set an ambitious target of 15 per cent for mature students in third-level education by 2006.

Finally, applicants from outside the State, mainly from Northern Ireland but also including students from other EU countries and from outside the EU, will complete the range of candidates for places available.

This wide array of applications explains why the numbers applying to college will not decline, even though the number of school-leavers has dropped significantly.

Those hoping for a fall in the points required for entry into high-points courses are thus likely to be disappointed.

Those considering whether to seek a third-level place may be wondering about the potential benefit of spending a number of years studying as opposed to entering the work force immediately.

For me the issue is simple: if you have the potential to increase your skills level through further education, whether you are 17 or 71, you should take it. Every additional year spent in education is calculated to increase earning power by 15 per cent.

For many of all ages, the option of standing still is not realistic. We live in a fiercely competitive world where every job has to remain cost-effective.

Ten new countries join the EU this year, with cost bases that are a fraction of Ireland's. Our economy and level of education may be some years ahead of our Eastern European neighbours, but they will be doing all in their power to catch up.

The message to all Leaving Certificate students is that no matter what career choice you make over the next six months, continuous training and education should be a part of your world for as long as you hope to continue working.

One of the issues raised by students and parents is the question of which courses will lead to employment. This is a false trail that should be avoided at all costs.

Deciding on a career based on current market conditions is foolhardy to say the least. Opportunities in all career areas fluctuate as the economy changes and goes through its various cycles.

Students sitting the Leaving Certificate in 2004 and then choosing courses in colleges, which will have them graduating and seeking their first job in 2008, cannot do so on the basis of what careers are hot or otherwise in 2003. Yet this is happening up and down the country.

The plight of an older sibling, cousin or neighbour's child who may have graduated in 2002 and is still seeking a good job is quoted as evidence as to why candidates should avoid a course in that area. But who knows what the opportunities in that area will be like in three to four years' time?

If you do know, it is time to retire and make your fortune on the stock market. Courses and careers should be chosen based on interest and aptitude, and on no other basis.

Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors