BRIAN MOONEY'S ADVICE CENTRE:As outlined in the recent annual report from the OECD, Education at a Glance 2008, almost one-third ofthird-level applicants who accept a place on an undergraduate degree programme fail to complete their course.

Many of these students drop out in the first year of the programme. This non-completion figure varies from over 50 per cent in Italy and the US, to as low as 15 per cent in Denmark and 10 per cent in Japan. Ireland is almost alone in not producing any figures for non-completion rates among its undergraduate students, but it is likely that we are experiencing rates close to the OECD average of 30 per cent. Interestingly, the report finds that there is no relationship between the charging of tuition fees and completion rates.

Why do so many college applicants pick the wrong courses?

Many young people, upon completing their second-level education, feel under intense pressure - from within themselves, from their peers, and from their parents - to choose a career for life. This expectation is based on the totally false premise that we go to school for 14 years and then make a choice that will determine our long-term career prospects. This view is total nonsense and bears no relationship to how any of us live our lives, but it forms the basis of our whole education system. In truth, the most any of us can reasonably be expected to do, when considering our future, is to weigh up all the evidence that our immediate past can offer and commit to a short to medium term plan of action for maybe one to three years, based on that evidence.

But what about my immediate college/career choices?

Any person considering their future academic or employment options should consider all of the variables that will form the basis of the next appropriate stage of their career journey - their academic record to date, their favourite academic subjects, the results of aptitude or interest tests, their interests and hobbies, and advice from teachers or guidance counsellors.

If, having explored all of this data, and examined all of the quality information available on websites such as www.qualifax.ie and www.careersportal.ie, they find that they cannot immediately discern a clear preference for a particular set of course options, they should resist the temptation to make a hasty choice, and allow themselves time to reflect further on the choices facing them.

What are the consequences of making the wrong choice?

Apart from the mental anguish of accepting that one has made the wrong college choice, some hard financial factors come into play. The "Free Fee" paid by the State on a student's behalf, applies only to one sitting of each half-year or semester of any course. If you drop out of your course, you will pay the full EU fee for that period if you return later to take up a new programme of study.

At a time of severe shortage of resources to fund the most basic of educational services for our citizens, it is scandalous to witness the waste of public money currently being exposed in the media. In this series in September, I lamented the waste of public money in Fás that I witnessed during my involvement with it as president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors from 2001-2006 when Ireland enjoyed almost full employment.

The blame does not lie with former director Rody Molloy, or the many other Fás executives, who were faced with the almost impossible task of finding ways to spend a budget of almost €1 billion per year when jobs were plentiful. The blame lies within the culture at the highest levels of the public service and Government. This culture determined that the size of each Government department's budget is predetermined, no matter whether the money is needed or not.

TALKBACK...

At a time when large amounts of money could have been diverted from the budget of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to the Department of Education and Science so that they could pay for the building of hundreds of new schools required to give our children a proper start in life, the relative pecking order of both these departments meant that such a decision could never be contemplated, as it would have upset the long-established relativities between them.

Senior officials - and their ministers - within the Department of Enterprise would have been seen as total failures for allowing the status of their department to be diminished by accepting a budget reduction to fund a school-building programme. This culture of relativities, and not travel expenses incurred flying across the Atlantic, is the real scandal of Fás's budget in recent years.

• Brian Mooney is a guidance counsellor at Oatlands College, Dublin and a former president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors