Aoife Walsh: ‘Some non-CAO options that students may want to think about now’

Guidance counsellor Aoife Walsh
Article from the Independant.ie March 13 2019

While sixth-year students are very busy preparing for practical and oral exams, it is a quiet time of the year in relation to the CAO. Of course, this does not mean that students should not be thinking about life after the Leaving Cert and there are a number of non-CAO options they can consider now, including these:

ESB

The ESB is currently heavily engaged in a marketing campaign to recruit apprentices to their electrical apprentice scheme. The application process closes on March 25. This apprenticeship has been running for many years now and is extremely popular.

Applicants must hold at least a Junior Cert with Irish, English, maths, science and two other subjects. However, as competition is likely to be high, a strong Leaving Cert may be helpful. The application form will take 60 minutes to complete and will time out if left inactive for too long.

Applicants will also be asked to take an online aptitude test in five different areas. These will include verbal reasoning, spatial awareness, mechanical/technical, logical reasoning, numerical reasoning. Interested applicants will find more information by phoning 1890 393939 or by emailing apprentices@esb.ie.

Recruitment is also open for a number of other apprenticeships, including Ryanair’s aircraft maintenance and engineering apprenticeship and Bus Eireann’s heavy vehicle mechanic apprentice.

See also the apprenticeships.ie website.

RACE

The Racing Academy and Centre of Education (RACE) based in Kildare offers training for careers in the equestrian industry. Programmes include jockey and trainer courses, stable hand and management courses, as well as farrier training. The trainee jockey course is a 42-week residential programme, which allows graduates to become apprentice jockeys. It is also recognised by QQI as a Level 4 award. The assistant trainer course will allow graduates to obtain an assistant trainer’s licence and progress towards a full trainer’s licence. Graduates will also receive a FETAC Level 5 award.

Further education courses

As you can see from our important career dates list, this week there are a number of further education colleges holding open days and interview sessions. I have been approached by some sixth-year students this week who have asked me if it is too late to apply for a PLC. We have been encouraging our sixth-year students to apply for further education courses since November, however there are always some who choose not to do this.

Perhaps it is receiving less than ideal mock results that has focused minds. Regardless of the reason, I am glad to say it is not too late to apply.

All applicants should be aware, however, that further education colleges will continue to meet and interview applicants until all their places have been filled. Popular courses fill up quickly and some may already have their quota of students. However, not all those places may be taken up, so there could be availability down the line. Therefore, it is essential for students to apply now if they have not already done so. This will allow them to head into their mocks and orals safe in the knowledge that they have a college place waiting for them in September.

Aoife Walsh is a guidance counsellor at Malahide Community School, Co Dublin

What is QQI?

If you are searching for training in Ireland you may notice the above logo appearing beside the words QQI certified or certified by QQI, but who are QQI?

“On 6 November 2012, FETAC completed its amalgamation with HETAC, NQAI and IUQB and a new integrated agency, Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), was established. FETAC, HETAC and the NQAI are now dissolved. The new agency will continue to provide continuity of service as it evolves. QQI will bring any changes and updates to your attention over the coming weeks on its website www.qqi.ie” Source: ( http://www.fetac.ie/fetac/awardsinfo/awards.htm )

It’s very important to note whether the course you are taking is certified by this new awarding body and to familiarize yourself with the new QQI logo.

There is also an updated National framework of Qualifications (NFQ)

NFQ_fan (630kb) NFQ_fan (2mb)

 

 

 






What is Google drive and how do I use it?

In short, Google drive is Google’s cloud storage platform. You might have heard the words “cloud storage” before and been confused but these are just marketing buzz words. Cloud storage simply means that instead of your files being stored on your home computer, they are stored in a remote location on one of Google’s computers or servers. There is nothing new here really if you’ve had an email account with Google or any third party (hotmail etc), your emails are already stored outside of your home computer. This is why you can access your emails from anywhere.

info-graphic

In the diagram we have three devices in different locations all able to access the same files because they are stored on the Google server.

Having your files stored externally has many benefits.

  • You can access your files from any computer / smartphone / Tablet
  • You can recover your files easily (if your computer is stolen or gets broken)
  • You can free up space on your home computer (every Google account comes with 15GB cloud storage but you can add more if you need it for a small fee)

Google drive sounds great, but how do I use it?

To start with Google drive is part of Google’s apps so you are going to need a Google account. To sign up for a Google account go to www.google.ie and look in the right hand corner. Click Sign in.

googlesignin

Once you’ve clicked sign in you will be taken to a sign in page, below this it will say create an account

create

You can then fill out the form to create an account. Once you have this done you will have access to Google services. Go back to Google homepage and click on the small grid of black squares.

apps

this will open Google’s app panel and you can click on the Google drive icon.

appsopen

Once inside Google drive there are a number of things you can do.

drive

If your internet browser is Google chrome you can upload whole folders of files otherwise you will have to upload on a file by file basis. Documents created inside of Google drive will auto-save which is a very handy feature if your doing a CV, college work etc as you will never lose work again. You can also export the file to Microsoft word for some more intense editing if needed.

This should get you started with Google drive. In the next Blog post I will cover sharing files from your drive and also how to attach files from your drive to an email and send.

 

 

 






Pathways to work events

We have two events in the coming weeks that NCU will be attending and giving information out about our courses and answering any questions you might have. The events are held by Department of social protection under their pathways to work initiative , an employment, training and guidance scheme.

The first event will be on Tuesday the 27th of May in the Bracken court hotel, Balbriggan from 10:30am to 15:45pm

The second is being held on Thursday the 5th of June in the Ashbourne Community centre, Ashbourne Co. Meath from 10:00am to 4.00pm.

So if you are looking at one of our courses and are attending one of these events, we will be available to answer any questions. We look for ward to meeting you.

 






Introduction to the NCU Blog

Greetings

Hello all and welcome to the new NCU blog. This blog will help us to share our content with you and will become our watercooler for news and information. We have a number of tutors on board developing original content from tutorials and tips and tricks to articles and informative resources. So watch this space and enjoy.

So what is a blog?

The word “blog” is short for “weblog”. Blogs became popular in the 90’s when web publishing tools where developed allowing the regular internet user to self publish content without any previous html experience. Much like a magazine with it’s various articles contained inside, a blog is an post driven webpage. A post on a blog is much like an article and can contain text, images, video and web applications. Unlike a magazine a blog post has the ability to be interactive as it’s housed on the internet.

Why is a blog important?

The arrival of more portable connected devices means that our hunger for information has increased, to feed this hunger we must stay up to date with current methods of delivering content. A blog is a perfect variable for any website looking to add regular new content. A regularly updated blog will help your website to get repeat traffic as you build subscribers as well as building trust with the more popular search engines.

Keith Byrne

Web Administrator at NCU training.