You've got questions. Here are the answers

Young people of Ireland, lend an ear. Do you have a plan? Do you know where your life is going? Do you know what you're going to be when you grow up?

Don't worry if you have no idea what you want to do with the rest of your life now that the great Leaving Cert year is upon you. Take heart. Some people never get a grip on their lives but they've obviously never visited a Higher Options conference.

For those who are starting out on the last lap in the second-level sector it's consoling to know there is a place where you can go for guidance, advice and help. Students who attend the Higher Options Conference 2000 - organised by The Irish Times and the Institute of Guidance Counsellors - will hear voices, they will see the light (hopefully), they may even experience a Pauline conversion.

It's a powerful place. This is not, in fact, a house of prayer but the RDS, Dublin, where questions are answered and queries are sorted. Are you a creative person or a scientific whizzkid? Are you a born communicator or someone who likes to work alone, thinking, researching, delving? Are you out-going or introspective? Are you a problem solver? What do you love doing? What are you good at? Do you enjoy cooking, farming, nursing, dreaming, drawing, talking, reading, writing, calculating, figuring, travelling, arguing, pronouncing, dictating?

Whatever you excel at, there is a place for you, and the best place to discover where that place is at the Higher Options conference.

They won't burst any balloons when you arrive but the sense of excitement, adventure, new beginnings, fun and youth at the conference is catching. It's a time for looking ahead at the vista of your life and seeing it stretch out before you.

You will find thousands of other young people there searching for answers. Where to next? That's the question you have to ask yourself as you go in the door of the RDS. This year academics, employers, educationalists, career guidance counsellors and head hunters will attend the conference - they want to meet you, the Leaving Cert student. They'll want to dazzle you with their courses.

Over three days, about 26,000 students will visit. Go up to the stand that attracts you and sit yourself down. Don't move until you've asked a couple of questions, picked up a few brochures, business cards and make a few notes. Don't be nervous. Try to be focussed. It's an important time at the start of sixth year.

Now is the time to weigh up your options. This is the place where sixth-years go to trawl for ideas, inspect university stands and amass information. This is the time to recognise your strengths and weaknesses and plan accordingly.

Leaders in the individual fields of engineering, art and design, hotels and tourism, sales and marketing, construction, information technology and science will give career talks each day to whet appetites. The conference is a chance to ask your questions, make contacts and familiarise yourself with colleges, ITs and training centres. Starting at 10 a.m. each day, there will be talks each day in the concert hall and in Industries Hall A and B. Check the timetable and pick the talk that suits you.

When it comes to picking courses, it's vital that you opt for something in which you have an interest and an aptitude. You need to weigh up your strengths and weaknesses. In every case you should try to study subjects that you know you will enjoy. As well as the universities and the ITs, colleges from Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England will have stands. Post Leaving Cert colleges will also be on hand. The City of Dublin VEC will provide information on a total of 16 colleges in the city. Co Dublin VEC will equally have a number of courses worth investigating. A number of independent colleges are also registered, as well as the banks, the Garda, CERT, FAS, Forfas, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners.

The universities offer academic degree courses of three and four years duration, which usually involve a lot of individual, private study. The ITs provide more vocationally oriented, practical courses including certificate (usually of two years duration), diploma (typically three years) and degree programmes (usually four years). The IT courses, however, do involve a lot of individual study too.

Most certificate courses now lead to diploma programmes and an increasing number of diplomas lead to degrees. But it could happen that you have to change college to pursue your add-on degree. Bear this in mind and check it out.