The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Kerry students are top of the class
KERRY IS LIKELY TO HAVE HIGHEST TAKE-UP OF COLLEGES PLACES IN THE COUNTRY
KERRY’S students consistently deliver outstanding results in the State exams and the county’s Leaving Cert Class of 2016 was no exception.
Across Kerry, 2,056 candidates from Kerry – 1,044 females and 1,012 males – did one of the Leaving Cert (LC), Leaving Cert Vocational Programme (LCVP) or Leaving Cert Applied (LCA) exams and achieved results that open the gateway to a bright future.
Early figures indicate that, on a pro rata population basis, Kerry will probably have the highest take up of college places in the entire country. The vast majority of CAO applicants throughout the county secured one of the coveted 75,495 offers to 52,289 offerees, which were issued on Monday. The offers consisted of 41,422 at Level 8 (Honours Bachelor Degrees) and 34,073 at Level7/6 (Ordinary Bachelor Degrees/Higher Certificates).
More than 70% of students from the county, who did the 2016 Leaving Cert, will progress to higher education in colleges throughout the country. A further 20% will secure places at Post Leaving Cert (PLC) courses, apprenticeships, traineeships and other further education courses.
Nationally, 2016 college applicants did extremely well in CAO Round One offers. About 79% of the 41,422 applicants, who were offered a Level 8 course, received one of their top three preferences. A phenomenal 97% of the 34,073 applicants, who were offered a Level 7/ Level 6 course, received one of their top three preferences.
This year CAO received 80,887 applications, an increase of 1,673 on the 2015 figure. About 62,000 can expect to receive at least one offer of a college place before the end of the ‘offers season’ in October. Last year, 48,216 applicants accepted college places and that figure is highly likely to increase this year. This is great news indeed for 2016 applicants and proves that the CAO system works very hard to accommodate the maximum number of applicants.
As was widely anticipated, the points requirements for courses linked to expanding areas in the economy – such as architecture, engineering, construction, technology, science and maths – increased this year. In fact, the points’ trends released by the CAO on Monday morning clearly show that college applicants are now totally focussed on the jobs market when selecting their college courses. Again, this year applicants to CAO were cajoled by the Government and Employment Organisations to apply for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) courses where strong job growth is anticipated. This relentless promotion of STEM courses, in addition to 25 bonus points for Higher Maths, has resulted in a drop in point’s requirements for many HASS (Humanities, Arts, Social Science) courses as applicants lose confidence in the employment value of the liberal arts. The gloss has also gone off courses in agriculture, which were very popular during the economic downturn.
Poor job prospects since 2008 have resulted in school leavers rushing to college in unprecedented numbers. Despite the much-heralded sprouting of green shoots of economic recovery, applications for college continue to increase. The welcome increase, also, in the number of mature and non-traditional applications is very much in line with government strategy, aimed at increasing the skills and qualification levels of the general population, not just standard school leavers.
Once again this year, a quota of places was reserved by CAO for the 11,553 mature applicants and 15,486 applicants from the PLC sector. The quota system is a very healthy development as everybody deserves a second chance. So, there are plenty college places on offer this year for all categories of applicants.
A candidate may accept a first round offer online until 5.15pm next Monday. An offer automatically lapses unless it’s accepted on time. Round Two of college offers will follow on Thursday, 1st September.