Most CAO places will be accepted by Tuesday's deadline

COLLEGE CHOICE:MOST COLLEGE places offered through the CAO will be accepted by the deadline of 5.15pm next Tuesday. Any unfilled places will be offered by the CAO online in round two at 6am on Friday next, August 28th.

This will effectively end the application process for 2009, although colleges will continue to attempt to fill vacant places by placing them on the vacant places list on the CAO website at www.cao.ie

Will fees be introduced in 2010?

Very few students will seek to defer their place in college this year, as it is the last year of the current “free fees” system. The Higher Education Authority has written to all colleges this week instructing them to advise incoming first-year students that they should expect to pay a fee in some form or other, from the 2010 academic year onwards.

The details of the new financial arrangements for third-level will be thrashed out by the Government when it returns from holidays in September.

The upside for students may be that the registration charge, which has increased from €900 to €1,500 this year, may be rolled into any deferred loan scheme.

The class of 2009

An interesting aspect of this year’s CAO season is the growing diversity of the applicants. More than 12,000 mature applicants over the age of 23 applied to the CAO this year.

The growing participation rates among adults is a knock-on effect from high rates of unemployment.

Unfortunately, with 100,000 people under 25 on the dole, the places on offer are but a drop in the ocean compared to what is required.

The nursing crisis

The decision of the HSE to cut the number of places offered in nursing is desperate news for 300 aspiring nurses who secured more than 350 points in their Leaving Certificates.

The decision will yield no savings within the 13 colleges which offer nursing degree programmes, as the total administrative costs will not be reduced by the loss of 20-plus students in each faculty.

The only saving will be in the payment made to these trainee nurses while working in hospitals.

This saving within the HSE budget will be outweighed by the potential cost of keeping these young people on unemployment or jobseeker’s benefit for many years.

Where now for those not college bound?

About 12,000 young people who left school this year would traditionally expect to find full- time work and/or training in construction, hospitality, the motor trade and so on. Instead, many will go on the dole.

We could be facing a serious social crisis if we do not immediately initiate a major initiative to harness and direct the energy of these young people.

We must rapidly build on the co-operation that is beginning to develop at local and regional level, through the combined efforts of the agencies and Departments of Education and Science, Enterprise Trade and Employment and Family and Social Affairs.

Much of this co-operation is being channelled through the work of the 30 adult education guidance services, which operate within every VEC.

These advise unemployed young people with low skills, of the available training and education options.

Unfortunately, the training and education places available are a fraction of the number required to actively engage the energies of the 100,000 young people, currently unemployed and rapidly losing hope.

(Series concluded)

Brian Mooney will be writing a weekly column in Education Todaywhich returns next month.