Awareness of Vocational Placement Opportunity

The great dream was just to walk straight into a graduate position. But unfortunately life had different plans. I got a good degree but the market was saturated with fresh graduates and the only thing that sets you apart – and most of the positions I was applying for required – two years’ work experience. I worked in numerous different jobs and I nearly gave up on my dream. I was working as a tour guide. I retrained, and was working as a chef in the UK. But I was constantly chipping away at gathering experience; I would always be volunteering [in ecology], but I was a few months away from being like, ‘I'm never going to crack this nut, I’ve wasted too much time. I may need to look into a new field or upskill.’ But all that takes money, and I didn’t have enough to afford a master’s or what have you. And that’s kind of what led me on to this programme. I saw it and I said, look, a three-month placement. It’s in the line of work that I’m interested in – why not?

Other participants emphasised the need to get relevant work experience in a real-world setting. As noted in the section on PLC courses, work experience is not a universal feature of VET in Ireland and the majority of time is spent in the classroom. There was a palpable desire among participants from PLC courses to gain exposure to authentic workplaces:

• I wanted to see the real-world scenario of what we were studying. It’s all very well and good being in a classroom and learning about this and that, but seeing it in the real world is a priceless asset.

Seán • [I wanted] just to see a different side of it, because we spend so much time inside here in the studio.

So it was really to see a different way of doing things that could open my mind a little bit. Aedín The other chief motivating factor for these participants was to increase their autonomy and selfsufficiency. Two-thirds of the participants lived with their parents at the time of their placements and wanted to experience a different way of life:

• For me, I was living at home before I went away. I just wanted to go away to get me own independence. That was the main goal for it, just finding my own way of how to do things. Sonia • I was living at home. And then just going over there for a few weeks, being so used to living your own life, looking after yourself, being responsible for yourself. When I came back I was like, ‘I can’t believe I have to go live in this house again! I just want to move out now.’ Steven

As so many learners were motivated by their desire to obtain relevant work experience in their vocational area, it is striking that very few of them were aware of the opportunity before they chose their courses of study.

In Focus Group A, Seán remarked, ‘I hadn’t heard of Erasmus+. At the start of the year they mentioned the Erasmus programme and gave us a little bit of insight into it, how it was run in the college.’ In Focus Group B, Steven observed that ‘[the college is] putting more into Erasmus+ and they’re pushing it as an option; it’s something they’re really proud of, to have in the college. It’s like … this is a big thing to have in this little small college that I didn’t even know existed. You would just never think they would have these kind of things available.’