PLCs: route to employment or a foot on the ladder

As yet, there is no central applications body for PLCs, though the intake is now very high. In fact, it's close to two-thirds of the first-year intake into third level.

At the start of the current academic year, there were 24,700 places available to students in the Post Leaving Certificate sector. This includes about 20,000 places which were on offer to first-year entrants - most of the courses on offer are for one year. Because there is no central applications body, students must apply individually to each college. Also most colleges require students to attend an interview. The education standard required is Leaving Cert or an equivalent, with no points rating for the student's performance. Most PLCs are one-year full-time courses which lead to a qualification awarded by the National Council for Vocational Awards. PLC courses are on offer in more than 200 schools and colleges around the State - in vocational, secondary and community and comprehensive schools, with the majority of courses on offer in the vocational sector.

There are no tuition fees for PLC courses, but you may have to pay for books, uniforms/clothing and equipment, student services, registration charges by professional bodies and exam fees. There are means-tested maintenance grants available, however, to those students who are eligible.

The principal aim of the PLC sector is to prepare students directly for the workplace. Some courses, however, are also designed to help you gain a foothold on the education or training ladder - such as pre-apprenticeship and pre-nursing courses.

A survey of 1996-97 PLC graduates, carried out in 1998, shows that 64 per cent found work, with 16 per cent of those in part-time work and the remainder in full-time employment. The remaining 36 per cent went on to further education or training. Some 24 per cent went to third-level colleges.

There are more than 1,000 courses to choose from, ranging from areas as diverse as art, design, computing, engineering, pre-nursing, community care, outdoor pursuits, horticulture, applied languages and teleservices. One of the strengths of the PLC sector is its ability to respond rapidly to the changing needs of the marketplace. Some of the new modules on offer give an insights into the relevance and viability of many of these new courses - design, bookkeeping (manual and computerised), payroll (manual and computerised), teleservices, security systems and procedure, customer service, stage management and administration, production design for theatre, technical skills for theatre, pre-press graphics, image processing and computer illustration graphics. One area of the PLC sector which continues to grow each year is in the art and design portfolio preparation area. This is in direct response to the competition for third-level places on art and design courses. Many Leaving Cert students do not get enough time to concentrate on the production of a quality portfolio which is needed for admission to these courses. Taking a one-year PLC course affords them that time.

A PLC course like this allows students get a taste of the various art and design specialisms. In the Monaghan Institute of Further Education and Training, for example, the course includes drawing, painting, sculpture, textiles, combined materials, communications, graphic design, photography, printmaking design and history and appreciation of art and design.

If this is the route students plan to take to get onto a third-level course, they should make sure that such access exists. A linkage system is now in place which allows PLC graduates to apply for places at 16 of the institutes of technology. About 2,000 places are available on more than 250 courses on the Higher Education Links Scheme. Students who did not get sufficient points in the traditional Leaving Cert can use this route to get to college if they perform sufficiently well at PLC level.

Dr Dermot Douglas, the registrar of Tallaght IT, explains that the advantage of going the PLC route is that it allows you time to find out whether you are suited to a particular discipline. NCVA students apply through the CAO in the normal way and their PLC results are forwarded automatically to the CAO. Places are awarded on the basis of students' performance.

NCVA students are not competing with Leaving Cert students, because 1,500 places are specifically reserved for them. But they may have to compete with each other. Douglas suggests that students maximise their chances by following their choice of course around the State. He also says that students who have progressed via the PLC route tend to be focused and know what they want, so they usually do well, he says. They are at some advantage in first year as they already have a background in the area but they are competing on an equal footing from second year.

The ladder system, whereby students can progress from certificates to diplomas to degrees to postgraduate qualifications, is open to PLC holders who commence their third-level studies at certificate or diploma level. Therefore a student can progress all the way from PLC to PhD if he or she performs sufficiently well in the intervening exams.