As major changes are planned for Leaving Certificate subjects, the Senior Cycle Redevelopment Programme Delivery Board has also recommended a reform to the Central Applications Office.

The recommendations include potentially integrating apprenticeship applications with the CAO to have a single common system for both higher and further education.

Currently, the CAO only processes applications for undergraduate courses in Irish Higher Education Institutions.

On Newstalk Breakfast, guidance counsellor Gemma Lawlor called the recommendation for CAO reform “an interesting concept”.

"Apprenticeships are fundamentally different"

“I think they're hoping that with the redevelopment of the Leaving Cert subjects… that this will change the whole way we look at the Leaving Cert and therefore that the system of getting into college or the system of progressing onto third level should change in tandem with that,” she said.

“The problem with that, I see, is that apprenticeships are fundamentally different from a third level educational course in that apprenticeships are employments.

“As far as I see it, most companies and most people who take on apprentices want to choose or select their own employees, because there is a very important relationship between the master trades person and their apprentice.

“What they seem to be suggesting in this report is that with the expansion of different pathways after the Leaving Cert - tertiary courses, apprenticeships and higher education courses - that there should be some change involved.

“But from a guidance counsellor’s perspective, we have to look in terms of the of the differences of those pathways - they are not the same pathway, and therefore the same the same selection procedure cannot apply to say, for example, all three.”

"Extremely important"

Ms Lawlor acknowledged that there is “something to be said” for this reform aiming to send out a “very clear signal” that apprenticeships are just as important as going to a third level institute.

“I fully embrace the fact that apprenticeships are extremely valuable - they're extremely important,” she said.

“Ireland has the lowest rate of apprenticeships in Europe and we do have this sense, perhaps in some places, that apprenticeships are not as valuable as a third level degree - but in actual fact when you look across the world, apprenticeships are highly valuable.

“I think the focus needs to be on how valuable they are.”

"A sense of what's available"

The redevelopment board hasn’t suggested a method of integrating the system of the CAO and apprenticeships, Ms Lawlor said.

“I suppose what really would be very, very helpful for students, for parents, for schools and guidance counsellors, would be a central database, like a Central Applications Office, where information was clearly visible on companies trades persons that took on apprentices, what their criteria were and how the person could apply,” she said.

“So, if there was that sort of central applications system, rather than people being assigned to individual companies, I think you would get a far greater sense of what's available out there.”

The Leaving Certificate cycle is expected to welcome a change to 40% of the coursework being marked based on project or classroom based assessment in the near future.

Apprentice butcher. Image: Rainer Klotz / Alamy Stock Photo