Engaging Young People? Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

15 April 2010

Engaging Young People? Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

The Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) was introduced in 1995 as an alternative to the established Leaving Certificate, with the goal of preparing students for the transition from the world of education to that of adult and working life including further education. This report examines the characteristics of young people who participated in the LCA programme approximately one decade after its introduction and investigates their reasons for entering the programme, their learning experiences during LCA, and their subsequent employment and educational pathways. The main findings of the study:

• The LCA attracts students who are predominantly working class.
• For LCA participants, negative school experiences during junior cycle often preceded their entry into the programme.
• The LCA caters for a diverse group of students who, during junior cycle, struggle with schoolwork, experience behavioural problems, wish to enter the labour market (particularly males), and have special educational needs.
• Some LCA students feel 'misdirected' by the school into taking the LCA programme.
• LCA students are often segregated from students in other Leaving Certificate programmes.
• LCA teaching methods such as group and project work, smaller class sizes and work experience, help re-engage young people with school. However, students often experience a lack of challenge in some subjects, particularly maths.
• LCA students are channelled into the labour market upon leaving school and have relatively low levels of progression to post-school education and training. LCA school leavers usually enter distinct employment activities, with young men commonly working in the construction sector and young women employed in personal service jobs.

Issues for future policy development:

• Junior and senior cycle programmes could benefit from making greater use of the teaching approaches used in the LCA.
• Defining clear and transparent objectives for the LCA could help to resolve some of the problems associated with student entry into the programme and with differences in understanding of the LCA by schools, parents and students.
• Introducing a more personalised form of learning with greater flexibility for students would address the issues around a perceived lack of challenge in the LCA curriculum.
• Increasing the challenge and widening the scope of the curriculum would also impact positively on students' educational and labour market opportunities by broadening the subsequent employment opportunities open to them.
• Further debate is needed around the profile and awareness of LCA, its lack of recognition for direct entry to third level and exclusion from the CAO points system.
• Increased recognition would also have the knock-on effect of reducing the apparent stigma and negative labelling associated with the LCA as experienced by young people in this study.

Note to Editors: 1. Engaging Young People? Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme, by Joanne Banks, Delma Byrne, Selina McCoy and Emer Smyth (ESRI), is published online on the ESRI website on Thursday 15th April 2010 at 00:01a.m. 2. This report was commissioned by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA).

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