Leaving Cert students: What you need to focus on at college open days

Open days offer prospective students a valuable opportunity to sample college life – but preparation is key.

The country’s third-level colleges will bring prospective 2027 students onto campus over the coming months.

The opportunity to physically experience the college environment – even if just for a few hours – can help motivate students to reflect on their Leaving Certificate goals as they consider the next step on their lifelong career journey. It can also bring a greater focus to a student’s interactions with their school guidance counsellor as they work together to identify the most suitable course option to pursue following completion of their school life in June 2027.

The key to successfully making the transition to higher or further education is to concentrate on the suitability of the curriculum content, college facilities and availability of accommodation or public transport links, rather than the desired occupational area or specific job to which they may hope to progress following graduation.

That task can become the focus of attention in four or five years, when college life is coming to an end and the needs of the labour market, which is being rapidly transformed by AI, are clearer.

Whatever the nature of the coming open days, you should undertake some basic research about the colleges you are considering and their course offerings before each event.

After all, depending on the decision you will make, whether it is to start your post-second level academic journey in a local PLC college at level 5 or on a tertiary degree, or in a university via the CAO process, you are committing several years of your life to this next stage of study and learning.

For many, the process is already well under way. More than 28,000 students attended The Irish Times Higher Options conference in mid-September. There they benefited from talks by experts in the field of further and higher education at home and abroad, heard about apprenticeships and other training opportunities, and spoke to representatives of many colleges and courses.

Those considering third-level options in colleges in the Republic will have read the 2027 CAO Handbook online at cao.ie and are now exploring all third-level and further educational college courses on offer on qualifax.ie.

Of course, as outlined above, Leaving Cert students are not only considering courses offered through the CAO. Thousands choose to study at their local Further Education (FE) college, where they can secure level 5 and 6 QQI awards facilitating entry to employment or into those CAO courses that reserve a percentage of their first-year undergraduate places for FE graduates.

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In 2023, then minister for further and higher education Simon Harris introduced a new option outside of the traditional CAO: tertiary degrees. More than 80 tertiary degrees have been developed to date by the education and training boards and higher education institutions and provide transitioning pathways from further to higher education.

A list of degrees offered in 2027 and the universities hosting these programmes can be found at nto.ie. If attending open days at these institutions, prospective students should inquire about these tertiary degree options.

All FE colleges operate their own open days, often holding several such events throughout the academic year.

Several thousand Irish students will apply for courses in Northern Ireland (particularly those living near the Border), Scotland or, in some cases, England, notwithstanding the £9,790 (approximately €11,500) yearly fees. All general applications to Northern Ireland and UK colleges are made through the UK Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (ucas.com).

EU citizens can study in any EU country under the same terms and conditions as in their own country, and thousands of Irish students have in the past 10 years chosen to study at one of the more than 1,000 courses taught through English in continental EU universities. There are 2,000 students from the Republic studying in the Netherlands, as an example of the growth in this pathway in recent years.

These EU colleges also host in-person open days that Irish students can attend – low-cost air fares should help minimise the expense involved in going to such events. You can find out more about these events from the European Universities Central Application Support Service, at eunicas.ie.

When exploring college options, be aware that the course is only a small part of what you will experience when you arrive on registration day in early September next year to start college life. You will be entering a community that will help shape you for the rest of your life.

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In our personal relationships, we take time getting to know other people and every aspect of their personality before we commit to them. Selecting a course that will commit you to living your life within that community for at least three years should be considered just as carefully. The only way to evaluate whether a college is right for you is to explore all aspects of its life as fully as you can on its open day, and see whether it feels like a good fit. This is more than an intellectual exercise.

As a guidance counsellor and teacher for more than 40 years, I have dealt with many students whose minds were full of facts and figures about dozens of courses, but could not differentiate between them. They were lost in a sea of data, with no guiding compass to make the right choice.

On a college open day, you will see the institution put its best foot forward. The glossy brochures, the presentations, smiling student ambassadors, friendly lecturers and goody bags are all designed to present the college in its best light. It can be hard to take in the true nature of college life from such an experience.

You can, however, see through a certain amount of the perfection that a college looks to display on an open day if you take the time to dig a bit deeper.

If you are particularly impressed with a college or course after an open day, and are considering ranking their programme at the top of your CAO application list, then simply try to go back on an ordinary day and wander around to see if day-to-day normality gels with the aura of its open-day presentation.

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It may well take the next six to eight months to clarify your thought processes as to where you want to launch yourself into the post-secondary world, but if you follow the advice outlined above you will probably find clarity by the closing date for final course choices, on July 1st, 2027.