Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) courses have come a long way in a relatively short life. It's not so long since they were looked on with an elitist disparagement, as the poor relation of a "proper" third-level course, a way of filling in time. Not any more. PLCs are these days seen as a valuable option, a way of building skills and confidence and equipping participants to make choices for life.

The proof is in the pudding: and the pudding, in this case, is the existence of the more than 240 colleges offering PLC courses across the Republic. More vocational in nature than most university courses, they can last from one to three years. Once completed the successful student receives a qualification validated by the Further Education and Training awards Council (FETAC - formerly awarded as NCVA qualifications).

Skills gained on a PLC course will qualify you for both the workplace or, if you attain the equivalent of NCVA Level 2, the right to go on and complete a third-level degree course through the Higher Education Links scheme.

A real sign that PLCs have arrived as an important part of post-second-level training and education is the fact that students taking them are, if eligible, now entitled to a third-level grant. Also, because PLCs tend to be based on a specific need in the economy, job prospects for successful students are usually very good.

PLC courses are proving so successful, in fact, that up to 23 per cent of students are dropping out because they're being offered jobs before graduation. Because of their enthusiasm, skills and enthusiasm for work employers have been "poaching" them after the work experience which is an inevitable part of the course.

Since the programme began in l985, the numbers taking PLC courses have more than doubled. The variety and range of PLC courses is growing by the year too, driven by market demands. In Dublin, especially, there are a huge number on offer - Colβiste Dhulaigh in Coolock, for instance, offers no fewer than 24 PLC courses (This is reflected, too, in that college's student body increase from 500 to 800 in the last three years). A look at what's available in locations throughout the State shows Carlow's Institute of Further Education offering 20 PLC courses, Colβiste Stiofβin Naofa, Tramore Road, Cork offering 22 courses and Galway Technical Institute, Fr Griffin Road, Galway with 14 courses on offer.

Subject choices are also in great supply. In Galway you can do anything from admin/secretarial to architecture/draughting to marketing. In Cork they're running courses in computing, fashion, arts administration and leisure studies/sport, among others while in Carlow there are courses in art/craft/design, furniture/design/floristry as well as studies in nursing and security.

In all there is a choice of more than 60 disciplines available. Relatively new subjects include a Graduate Diploma in Multimedia Computing, a Graduate Diploma in Recruitment and a course in Landscape Architecture. All told, there is a total of some 1,000 courses on offer.

A study carried out by the Department of Education for the academic year l996-l997 found that 64 per cent of those who did PLC courses went directly into employment. The rest went on to further education or training. Today's PLC students are discovering too that the more focused, specialised courses allow them to study a more specific and relevant aspect of a subject, a sort of focus that is often not on offer in the university or IT sector.

For students who don't get the number of points they need for a particular third-level course the PLC is a godsend. It can be used in the manner of a ladder system - the Higher Education Links Scheme. More than 2,000 first places are allocated, using this scheme, in selected courses in the ITs, on the basis of grades achieved in the NCVA Level 2 awards. In addition, some PLC colleges run courses which lead to degree-awarding programmes in universities in both here and abroad. The result is that students find they can complete a third-level qualification in almost the same time it would have taken if they had gone directly to third level.

PLC courses are of particular benefit to students who complete the Leaving Certificate Applied (LCA) programme, another increasingly successful educational innovation. PLC courses are an important route for LCA students who want to go on to get a third level qualification because they may find it difficult to gain a place through the CAO.

You will, obviously, need a Leaving Cert to get onto a PLC course. There is no points rating and admission to courses is generally decided on the basis of an interview. Tutors will assess a candidate's suitability for a course and help her/him establish if a PLC course is suitable in the first place. There are no tuition fees and the Department of Education is currently considering making some PLC courses part-time to enable full-time workers to participate.