Today Transition Year students got the chance to attend a careers fair in St. Columb’s College in Derry, accompanied by two teachers – Mrs Galbraith and Mrs Keogh. We got on the bus at a quarter to ten and headed for Derry. We arrived at the school at about twenty past ten, where we were lead to the door by a student, before being taken to a hall where many different companies, universities, colleges and IT’s had set up stands about their respective courses and careers on offer.
The stands in the hall ranged from Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University to an airplane design company! Many of the large educational institutions in Ireland and the UK had sent representatives. These included Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University (DCU), NUI Galway, Sligo IT, Leterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT), University of Ulster (Magee, Jordanstown & Coleraine Campuses), Queen’s University Belfast and Liverpool – John Moore University, among many many others!
We had also been given a timetable of different talks that were during three different periods throughout the day. The first talk that I attended, was a talk from Trinity College Dublin, which touched on the subjects which they offer, their entry requirementnts, examination and fees, as well as student life.
I also went to a talk on medicine, and how you can peruse it as a career. A local Derry Doctor – Dr. O’Hagan, gave a very inspiring and insightful talk, where he talked about the challenges that he had faced when trying to peruse a career in medicine. I felt that this talk was very inspirational and his determination was admirable.
The third, and final talk that I attended was a talk on Modern Languages in Queen’s University Belfast. This talk and subject was right up my street and really appealed to me, as I would say that two of my favourite subjects would have to be Irish and Spanish. I felt that this was a possible course that I may enroll in someday, as the course itself is to versatile and student friendly! I really liked that you could get the chance to either sit a joint honours course, in which you could study two languages – where I could study both Irish and Spanish, or sit a singe honours course where you would study only one language – where I could study Spahish or Irish. There is also an option to study for one year of your course abroad. This talk has really appealed to me and I am seriously considering it as a possible course that I will study after my Leaving Certificate in 2018.
I was extremely happy that I attended the careers fair today, as it had given me a great insight into what I may study before I even chose my subjects for my Leaving Cert – a chance that I have only received as I am lucky enough to be in Transition Year!
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