COLLEGE CHOICE:IF YOU have decided that you want to continue in or return to education, and have identified an area or discipline that you wish to engage with, it is now time to explore the courses on offer.
The best resource available is the Qualifax website listing every detail of the 23,000 courses available on the island of Ireland. The value of the Qualifax website, qualifax.ie, is that colleges provide specific details on each course, so you can compare them easily.
If you want to explore every law course in the country, one search word will give you immediate access to all 256 courses, which have the word “law” in the title, including NUI Maynooth’s new four-year law degree (MH119), which was launched only yesterday.
Qualifax is updated daily, so everything on the website is accurate when you log on.
In contrast, a printed prospectus from a university can be out of date before it leaves the printers.
If you are a current Leaving Certificate student, you can use Qualifax over the next two weeks, to check if there are any “restricted application” courses in which you may be interested; these have to be listed on your CAO application before the February 1st deadline. These courses all include some form of interview or portfolio presentation and cannot be applied for later.
Alternatively, you can take your time in exploring the 1,300-plus higher certificate, ordinary degree and honours degree courses, on offer from the CAO today.
You have until July 1st to finally make up your mind which ones to apply for.
You can also access full details of all 1,895 post-Leaving Certificate courses on offer from VEC colleges throughout the country.
If you are finishing a degree programme and are considering postgraduate studies, Qualifax will give you access to all 2,020 such courses on offer.
Qualifax will also allow you to explore the 1,000-plus courses offered through Fás, should you be interested in acquiring a practical skill.
If you are an adult returning to education, you can choose between 3,000 short courses and 10,000 lifelong learning courses, the full details of which are available on the site.
If you want to study online, without having to leave home, Qualifax also has full details of the more than 150 Open University courses.
Apart from course details, Qualifax has multiple facilities to help you with your course search.
You can also take an “interest inventory” to discern which course areas might suit your interests.
Finally, if you are leaving school this year and would be willing to consider studying abroad, there are hundreds of undergraduate degree programmes on offer throughout the EU, reflecting the growth of English as the second language of choice of most young people in Europe.
Many of these degree programmes are offered by colleges in countries that have a tradition of not charging fees to other EU citizens.
The Irish Timeshas published a comprehensive directory of these courses, details of which are available on learnabroad.ie
Tomorrow: How to match up emerging job trends and study options
Brian Mooney is a former president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors