Q: I have an arts degree in languages and economics and would like to work as a librarian. What courses are available and where? How long will it take? Is it expensive? Kerry reader
A: There are two courses in librarianship, both at UCD: a higher diploma and a masters in library and information studies. The higher diploma is a one-year full-time course and candidates with some experience in the area are considered favourably.
The master's course can be done in either one year's full-time or two years parttime study. Closing dates are usually early February. At present these courses are ESF-funded which means you will not pay any fees - but do remember that there is no maintenance allowance for ESF postgraduate courses.
You should check the financial situation for 1998/ 99. If you have been entitled to a local authority higher education grant for your undergraduate studies, you would also be entitled to the same grants for one course of postgraduate study.
You should investigate two courses at UCD in related areas of study: the higher diploma in archival studies is a one-year fulltime course with an April closing date usually and the MA in information studies again one-year full-time with an early February closing date. There is also a diploma in information management in Queen's University, Belfast, which can be taken in one-year full-time or two-year parttime - closing date is March 1st. Those who reach a sufficiently high standard may be awarded an M Sc on submitting a dissertation.
Q: A few years ago I finished my B Comm and have worked in industry for the past five years. I'd like to get into second-level teaching. What qualifications do I need? Do I need Irish? What are the chances of getting a job? Limerick reader
A: If you wish to teach any subject in a second-level school, you must have the H Dip in education which is available at UCD, UCC, UG, NUI Maynooth and TCD. This one-year full-time course is open to all graduates. There is also a graduate diploma in education (business) at UL for commerce and business studies graduates only.
Most of these courses have closing dates from mid-February and midMarch to early April and they are advertised nationally. If you want to teach information technology at second level, courses are available at the College of Commerce, Cork (teachers' diploma in commercial skills, closing September); Senior College, Dun Laoghaire (teachers diploma in IT, word processing and typing, closing mid-September); and TCD (diploma in computers in education, no set closing date but apply early for placement on waiting list). The Cork and Dun Laoghaire courses are oneyear full-time but the TCD course is one-year part-time.
To qualify for a full-time permanent post teaching in a second-level, community or comprehensive school you must pass the oral exam of the Ceard Teastas Gaeilge (CTG). However, until very recently if you wished to teach in a VEC school, it was necessary to have both the oral and written CTG.
The Minister for Education and Science has now decided that all teaching posts in second-level schools will have the same Irish requirement, a pass in the oral exam of the CTG. He also announce that from the current school year onwards teachers in vocational, community and comprehensive schools who do not satisfy the Irish requirement at the time of appointment may be appointed provisionally subject to getting that qualification within three years.
The fact that you have five years industrial experience will be a great asset in teaching business subjects and/or information technology. Generally employment prospects for H Dip graduates are poor - only 3.8 per cent of 1996 graduates got full-time teaching jobs but 57 per cent got part-time temporary or substitute posts while almost 9 per cent were teaching abroad.
Prospects are better for teachers of business because in addition to the certificate courses in the traditional exams such as Junior Cert and Leaving Cert, business studies / information technology now features on the newer courses such as Leaving Cert Applied and Leaving Cert Vocational programmes, Transition Year, Junior Cert Elementary and VTOS and PLC courses.
However, you should try your own alma mater for a H Dip place first because the number of applicants is way over the 800 or so places available in all colleges. Most colleges consider their own recent graduates first and then their own older graduates and finally those with primary degrees from other colleges.
Q: My daughter has just given up French in school and has no language other than English and Irish. Is she ineligible for any university or the DIT because of this? - Limerick mother
A: At this stage the NUI constituent colleges - UCD, UCC UG and NUI Maynooth - and the RCSI require a language apart from English or Irish. So she is out of the running for any of these colleges.
However, most other major colleges do not require a third language. UL requires English and Irish or any other language. English or Irish is required by DCU, the three institutes of technology (Dublin, Cork and Waterford).
This is also the case for most RTCs except Dundalk which specifies English only. Athlone will accept English or Irish or any continental language. Teacher training colleges require both English and Irish. TCD requires English, maths and another language, for example, Irish - or it will accept Latin and another non-language subject instead. All remaining colleges in the CAO system require English only or English and any other language. So effectively your daughter is only ruled out of the NUI colleges. Come to think of it, how is it that students in all other colleges get educated, get through certs, diplomas and degrees and get jobs with one or at most two languages?
It's time for NUI to review this policy which has great implications for subject choice for those who are short on linguistic skills but excellent students otherwise. I do hope it will not continue, either, for applications for nursing courses when the Price Waterhouse report is published as this would only perpetuate the NUI language requirement into another study area.
Queries can be answered only through this column and not by phone or post. Write to Sile Sheehy, Education & Living, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 - or by email to education@irish-times.ie
