Q: My son is in his first year in the local primary school. The teacher thinks he is colour blind. Will this be a big problem for him later on in life for jobs and training? Louth parentA: Normal colour vision is useful and important in a wide range of jobs that involve any kind of visual judgement. However, there are only a small number of occupations where colour recognition is critical to health and safety. For these careers, perfect colour vision is required as a condition for training and employment and a sight test normally forms part of the selection procedure.
Normally more males than females are affected and, while it is usually inherited, it does not change with age and cannot be treated. However, the level of effect is often only moderate and still allows people to recognise or distinguish between colours to a greater or lesser extent. In these cases, it does not usually represent a serious disability in terms of employment.
The best thing to do is to check with the school doctor or your own doctor. Tests check the presence, type and degree of defective colour vision.
Obviously, people who lack sensitivity to red light would have difficulty recognising signals and, so, would be unsuited to certain careers in transport.
However, in some jobs it's possible to predict where problems may occur and take steps to avoid them. It's also possible to redesign a job so that a person with defective colour vision can do it satisfactorily.
Occupations where good colour vision is an entry requirement include: motor mechanic, garda, certain careers in the Army or Naval Service, telecommunications technician, civil aviation worker (such as air traffic control or flight crew), electrical /electronic technician, train driver, signals /telecoms technician, track worker, station assistant, textiles / paints, ceramics or cosmetics.
Other occupations where defective colour vision is a handicap, though not an absolute bar to entry, include those such as cartography, design, horticulture, pharmacy etc.
So, I think you will find that, even if he has any of the three main types of defective colour vision (total or partial loss of sensitivity to red, green or blue light), there will still be lots of careers open to him and it would be good to interest him in these as he grows older.
Q: I'd like to be an aeronautical engineer but I'm not sure if I should opt for this specific type of engineering or go for the broader type. What work opportunities are there and where are the courses?
Clare student.
A: The opportunities that this branch of engineering are concerned with are aircraft design and construction and space and satellite research as well as planning, operation and maintenance of the fleets of aircraft and aircraft components.
Job opportunities will obviously be found with aircraft manufacturers, airlines, defence forces etc. The opportunities are quite small because of industry size and many of these engineers work in research and development with a smaller number involved in production.
You could opt to go directly into an aeronautical engineering/aerospace course - or else take a broader route at undergraduate level through a degree in electronics or physics to keep your options open and specialise later at post-graduate level.
Undergraduate courses in aeronautical engineering are available at the University of Limerick LM077 for which you will need a higher level grade C3 in maths and an ordinary level D3 in any one of physics, chemistry, physics with chemistry, engineering, technical drawing, biology or agricultural science. The subjects, biology and agricultural science, are new to this list.
You will also need a pass in English, a pass in Irish or another language and two other subjects to include 2 higher Cs. Points in 1997 were 445 and in 1998 were 440.
In the UCAS system, colleges such as Queen's University, Belfast, and universities in Bath, Bristol, Cranfield, Glasgow and Salford also provide degrees in aeronautical/ aerospace engineering and avionics.
Alternatively, you could opt for an electronics or physics degree and then take a postgraduate course such as that provided jointly by UL and TCD - the MSc in aerospace materials and structures which can be one year full-time or two years part time.
QUB also has postgraduate courses in aeronautical /aerospace engineering as have colleges including Bath, Bristol, Cranfield, Glasgow, Liverpool John Moore's, Imperial London, Manchester and Salford.
Q: I'm doing higher maths at Leaving Cert and just love it. I'm thinking of taking it to degree level but I'm afraid it would be too narrow a qualification at third level. What options does this degree provide - and will I be able to get a good job afterwards?
Sligo student
A: Maths is a great subject to take for degree level and strong mathematical skills are in much demand.
You seem to have a natural ability and aptitude for maths and you should certainly follow this up at third level and be able to enjoy your course.
Maths will open many doors to careers in accountancy, business, industry, management, banking, finance, insurance, computing and technology, the civil service, teaching, statistics and research - and, indeed, many of the advertised graduate vacancies which do not specify any particular discipline (and these can be as high as 50 per cent).
You can take a degree in pure maths, applied maths, maths as one subject in a joint degree or as a subject in first arts or science or commerce /business etc.
You may wish to take another subject in your degree which is totally different in content to maths such as a language, psychology, music, sociology, archaeology or politics. On the other hand, you may wish to take another related subject which contributes to the understanding of maths, such as maths physics, statistics, applied maths, computing, economics or such like.
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
