College Awareness Week recently took place in Portlaoise College and they carried out many events and activities where the whole school community came together to organise and promote the benefits of going to college and help students of all ages to become college ready.
Teacher Daryl Egan said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity to begin the conversation about going to college and helps students to realize that having a post secondary school plan is important and necessary.
“In this school we celebrate the benefits of all aspects of Further Education, this could be an apprenticeship, a Fetac/PLC course or a CAO application to a third level Institution.”
This year Portlaoise College pioneered a ‘Speed Subject Choice’ event where 6th Year pupils spoke with 3rd Year students about Leaving Certificate subjects.
The event took place in the school hall over two classes.
Teachers selected two 6th Year pupils (one Higher level and one Ordinary Level) to act as Ambassadors for their Subjects.
Each subject was then assigned a desk in the hall.
At their individual desk the 6th Year students displayed textbooks, exam papers, classwork and homework copies and project work relevant to the subjects they were representing.
The Third Years were then divided into groups of four and assigned a starting subject/ station.
The event then followed a Speed dating format when after 5 minutes students moved in unisense to the next subject.
Third Year student Josh Boylan said: “This was an informative, extremely beneficial and fun event”.
The school also ran a number of other Events which included:
First Year Essay Competition, The title of it was: ‘My Future, my career- How my future job will make a difference in the world.’ The winner was Kayla Daly from 1F.
Second Year College Quiz, TY trip to Waterford IT Open Day while teacher Alma Day- Teachers spoke to students in their classes about their chosen course/s and college experiences.
5th Years had an IT workshops with the founder of Qualifax, Tom Farrell. Tom also hosts a very useful website called Careers News.
6th Years had a visit and presentation from Aoife Fitzpatrick, Schools Liaison Officer from Carlow IT and past pupil Zoe O Leary, gave a powerful presentation about her personal story and making it into Trinity College where she is now a second year student.
SEE ALSO – Seven Laois ladies honoured for 20 years of volunteerism with Laois Riding for the Disabled
