Ms Beatrice Dooley:

We would love access to students in primary school. We link with them to some extent already by delivering aptitude tests for sixth-year students. There is scope for this through SOLAS. We could introduce apprenticeships and traineeships in a playful way. One eighth of our learners learn in a kinesthetic way so I see no reason why it would not work. We are very keen to have access to students in junior cycle. We had a precious ten minutes with each first year in my school prior to 2012 but that has now gone. We picked up on a lot of issues, such as mental health issues and career stuff. Students start making decisions on subject choice in first year and they shed subjects at that stage. Every time a person sheds a subject he or she closes the door to certain career choices. It would be wise to give us access to students before they decide what subjects they are keeping or what stream they are going to take, that is, the leaving certificate applied, the leaving certificate programme, etc. Whatever the new senior cycle will look like, I would welcome that.