Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank all our guests for coming in. We appreciate it. There is nothing like hearing from people about their experiences to see what changes need to be made. I am quite taken with some of the responses our guests have given there. Ms Leane mentioned how doing home economics in secondary schools led her into something and Mr. Twomey mentioned how working in the area for an employer led him into it, as well as liking metalwork. The same can probably be said for all our younger guests and for the experiences one has in secondary school. Career guidance is importance and there is more funding being put into new career guidance teachers than ever before but how important is it to have more experiences of different things when you are younger and making those decisions in life? Mr. McSherry was talking there about how it is probably too clean and that is a critical statement he has made. Unless we have real-life experiences how are we going to go into careers like this?

We have done a report on reform of the leaving certificate. It is important to have more mentors, so it is not just somebody with a book telling us about all the courses that are available but that if you see it you can be it. What do our guests think we could change about secondary school to make it so there are more people like them, that is, more young people who say they really enjoyed the lesson the class had from somebody who came in and was a bricklayer?