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The Leaving Certificate Applied is a new Leaving Certificate programme. It is a new
approach to education and training. Students apply their knowledge, skills and
experience to practical tasks at school, in the workplace and in the wider community.
The Leaving Certificate Applied promotes personal and communication skills, initiative
and enterprise, teamwork and high achievement. The LCAP prepares young people
for adult and working life and enables them to make decisions about further education
and training.

The examination is carried out over the two years of the programme as well as at the
end. The students are assessed on their knowledge and understanding of the courses
they have taken. Their communication, problem solving, practical and interpersonal
skills are also assessed.

Leaving Cert Applied by Graham Sheedy (6 Applied).

When I first came into the Leaving Cert Applied, I was not sure what it was going to
be like, as I had only been in the school for two years. We were told by the principal
(Mr O'Brien) that we were going to work hard, and that it was not going to be easy.

During our first year, we collected marks by doing projects and key assignments.
These marks were added on to our final exam marks. Last year in 5 Applied we did
projects on Art and English & Communications, and when the projects were finished
we were interviewed by an examiner from the Department of Education on what we
had learned from the projects.

The subject that we liked the most was Leisure & Recreation because we went on
trips and played football and basketball. We don't do this subject this year (6
Applied), but we have drama instead.

This year we have a lot more projects and key assignments to do. We also ran our own
business -a shop. We went on work experience a few weeks ago which was great. At the moment
we are very busy finishing off our projects and key assignments for session 3.

Leaving Cert Applied by Niall Kennedy (5 Applied).

I am currently doing the Applied Leaving Cert. When I started in September it was a
little boring and for about two weeks we spent time getting to know each other. In late
September we started to get into the course and the teachers began explaining the type
of work, projects and assignments we were going to be doing. The tasks seemed good
fun, as there was a practical side to nearly each one. I think that the Leaving Cert
Applied starts off slow but after a couple of week's things start moving and it becomes
more enjoyable. Each week we have three classes of PE and recently we have been
organising quad racing, pitch and putt, basketball and paintball shooting.

I think that this is a good class and it gives people a chance to get a good Leaving
Certificate. There is only one catch and that is, if you don't put the work in during the
year you don't get the credits at the end of the sessions and therefore you won't do
well overall. As part of the Leaving Cert Applied course we go on 8 weeks work
experience spread over the two years. This is a good way of filling our CV's with
references, and also for gaining experience in areas in which we might get jobs in the
future. Overall I think that this is a good course to help students adapt to the working
world and I think I'm going to enjoy it.