Your education questions answered

Q. My son is doing the Leaving Cert next June. I keep on telling him to talk to the guidance counsellor about his future but he says he is too busy with the exams. How will I get him to focus on the future?

A. The process of deciding on a career is not a single decision taken at a particular moment in time. Your son's guidance counsellor will have administered a series of interest and aptitude tests, during his years in secondary school. They will indicate areas of interest and give an indication of where his strengths lie.

I would suggest that you seek an appointment with his guidance counsellor to review any such reports. This process should give you a good understanding of yours son's current thinking regarding career choice. I would suggest that you find an opportunity to discuss any perceived interests that emerge from this process with your son in as relaxed and non-confrontational a manner as possible.

This may lead your son to clarify his thinking sufficiently to make an initial application to the CAO. The course or courses listed in such an application can be reviewed and changed at any time up to July 1st. Alternatively, this process may not lead to a clear set of career aspirations at this time. This should not be a matter of serious concern. Let us review what is happening right now. Your son is giving 100 per cent of his attention to his studies. There are thousands of parents who would long to be in your situation. If your son has decided to maximise his points score to give himself the widest range of career choices in the future, he is indeed a wise man.

As a parent, my concern would be to ensure that he is following a study, revision and relaxation plan. If he is successfully following a well-balanced programme of work, my advice would be to leave him be.

If having completed his Leaving Cert he still has no strong career aspirations, I would suggest that he take a year out from serious study. This could take the form of a GAP year or he could undertake a one-year PLC course in an area of interest to him. All of us develop at our own pace. It is a lifelong process that will lead the average 18-year-old through seven career changes in his or her working life.

My final word of advice to students on this matter would be to get an application in to the CAO by the closing date of February 1st. Putting in an application simply keeps your options open.

Correction

An answer on November 12th stated that another way of getting an art a design education at ENTAD would be to do an arts or science degree and then a higher diploma. This should have read that the other route is similar to doing an arts or science degree, followed by a higher diploma.

A student may complete any art or design diploma or degree course, which is recognised by the Registration Council for Secondary Teachers of the Department of Education and Science in Ireland, and then apply to the higher diploma in art and design education at ENTAD or the diploma for art and design teachers at IT Limerick or IT Cork.

Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. You can e-mail him your questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie