Are you an educational aspirant, a college wannabe? Maybe not a saint but perhaps a scholar? Are you like Julie Walters in Educating Rita? If you are, you'll be glad to know that you can now go on to third level without sitting the Leaving Cert.

The exam no longer stands as sole gatekeeper to third-level education. A new course, to be launched this week, will give mature students a chance to compete for a third-level place without completing the traditional Leaving Cert course.

This one-year NCEA foundation certificate course will provide access for an ever increasing number of mature students to institutes of education. It will give "non-traditional" students the qualifications to set off on third-level courses at non-university colleges.

The foundation certificate course, along with a new set of guidelines aimed at adults thinking about going back to school, will be launched this week by Willie O'Dea, Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, with responsibility for youth affairs, adult education and transport.

The NCEA foundation certificate has been in existence for two years on an ad hoc basis. However, its official launch means that it will now be available on a wider basis. Those who successfully complete this year-long course or its modular, part-time equivalent will be able to compete for a place in a non-university, higher education institution. It will provide open entry to national certificate courses, ab initio national diploma courses and ab initio degree courses.

In 1997 some 4,000 adults registered on NCEA-designated third-level courses, an increase of over 33 per cent on the previous year. "The success rate of adults in NCEA exams is much higher than school leavers," says Denis McGrath, registrar of the NCEA. "They have an 82 per cent success rate."

In 1990 about 1,000 adults or mature students went back to third level. Since then "it's building, building all the time. It's progressing every single year," McGrath says. "In our area, which is the academic area, we must ensure that there are no unnecessary walls, and that there are ladders attached to any wall that does exist."

As for the new foundation course, he says: "The Leaving Cert is designed for people who are in second level. It doesn't always suit the requirements of adults. The foundation certificate is focused on the needs of adults."

As for the guidelines that are to be launched along with the foundation certificate course, McGrath says: "The purpose is not to provide another document of regulations . . . It's written in layman's language. It's for the man going home on the bus. It's written clearly so that he will be able to take it out, understand it and take the next step."

Mature students getting unemployment benefit will be paid a back-to-education allowance equivalent to the maximum standard rate of unemployment benefit. Those getting a one-parent family payment, disability allowance or blind person's pension will be paid an allowance at a rate equivalent to the maximum rate of social welfare payment.

An information guide for mature students on full-time third-level courses in 1998 is already available free of charge from the Department's Curriculum Development Unit, at Sundrive Road, Dublin 12.

This, the fifth edition in this series, lists all colleges and details the proportion of places set aside for mature students this year. It also gives information on the selection procedures of each college. For example, DCU reserves 5 to 10 per cent of places in all faculties for mature students.

In UCC, each faculty differs, with about 80 places set aside on the BA programme, 40 on the bachelor of social science and three each on the BA (music) and B Music. In UL, places are awarded on merit in all faculties with no quotas. In TCD, about 10 per cent of places are set aside for mature students in arts, BESS, engineering and systems science, health sciences, science and arts (two subject moderatorship).

Most colleges will consider you mature if you are at least 23 years of age on January 1st of the year of entry or re-entry. Mature applicants should turn to page 8 of the CAO handbook which lists closing dates and application procedures.

It's important to remember that some colleges require that applications be made directly to them and others want them through the CAO. The colleges use the CAO as a matter of administrative convenience and it is the college which decides whether to offer a place or not; CAO has no function in that decision.