Leaving Certificate students across the country have received their results and have received their first CAO offers.
While some students are celebrating, others may be disappointed with having not received an offer yet.
If you did not receive a CAO offer this week don't panic, you may receive an offer in Round 2 or one of the subsequent rounds.
If you don’t receive an offer in later rounds, then there are plenty of options with the likes of ‘Available Places’ that you can consider.
Bernadette Walsh, Guidance Counsellor with CareersPortal.ie told the Irish Mirror: “At this time every year, thousands of leaving certificate students pursue further education, training and career options outside of the CAO system.
“Although it is the main third level course allocation system in Ireland, the CAO is not the only option that is open to school leavers and adults continuing their education.
“It is worth considering all of your options including Apprenticeships and Traineeships, PLC courses, Employer-Sponsored Programmes, Direct Entry Courses, A Gap Year and Studying Abroad.”
Here are some of the options that will be available to you if you don’t end up with an offer:
PLC Courses
PLC courses are a great way of continuing your education after secondary school, with many providing progression opportunities to higher education courses - like Level 8.
There are so many subjects covered by a vast range of PLC courses - you can have a look at everything that is available here.
Available Places
Each year, there are a number of courses where not all of the available places are filled during the CAO offer process.
These courses are then transferred to the CAO Available Places list, where the places are advertised.
Candidates who did not originally apply to these courses but satisfy the entry requirements are entitled to apply to these courses once they appear on the 'Available Places' list.
In addition to this, courses that have been added to the CAO since July 1, can also appear on the list.
So, if you have not received an offer, it can be worthwhile to check out the list to see if any of the courses with available places would be the right fit for you.
Direct Entry
Then, there are Direct Entry courses available to students after the Leaving Certificate.
These allow you to apply to the institution directly and do not consider CAO points.
See a list of these courses on the CourseFinder.
Aside from these options, there are many routes you can take after Leaving Cert if you’re not offered the course you want, or if you didn’t get the points you need.
You can look into:
- Apprenticeships and Traineeships
- Repeating Leaving Cert
- Springboard Courses
- Employer-Sponsored Programmes
- Gap Year
- Graduate Entry Programmes
- Non-CAO Undergraduate Courses
- Post Leaving Cert Courses
- Study Abroad
- UCAS Clearing
