St. Brendan's College

A comprehensive Career Guidance and Counselling service is available to all students at St. Brendan's College. Educational/Vocational counselling assists the pupils to grow in self-knowledge and self-esteem by providing information to enable them to make constructive life choices and future plans.

Armed with the information pupils are then free and responsible for their own choices and actions. The Guidance Counsellor helps the pupils to recognise the range of alternatives available after completing the Leaving Certificate and assists them to develop the skills to consciously shape their own career path.

Senior students have one class of Career Guidance each week. Individual interviews are also available to all students, and the school feels that this is imperative to enable students to make career choices in regard to CAO, UCAS etc.

Lecturers from 3rd level institutions also visit the school. They offer valuable advice to our students on specific course requirements. Visiting lecturers this year have included N.U.I. Galway, GMIT, Sligo Institute of Technology, Dublin Institute of Technology and FAS.

As part of their L.C.V.P. course, students undertake a Career Investigation. This gives students an insight into a particular career and further enhances their career decisions. 5th year students undertake a week work experience in May to facilitate this aspect of L.C.V.P.

The aims of the Guidance programme are as follows:

• Overcome any information deficit on careers/education.
• Foster a sense of personal responsibility for identifying future educational/vocational goals.
• Provide experiences that promote career development and prepare students for the transition to work/higher education.
• Focus on an individual's strength and potentials so as to create a strategy for Promoting discussion of student's educational/careers development in order to discourage excuses for irresponsible action.
• Introduce and foster a process of evaluating realistically, attainable career/higher education goals.
• Encourage the pupils to define expectations.
• Advise students on access routes to third level including the Higher Education Access Route(HEAR)
• Attend as many open days as possible.

For further information, contact the Guidance Counsellor Barbara Padden on 097 81437