Thousands of students will get their Leaving Cert results on Friday and many of them will be wondering what their futures hold.
Every year more and more students look beyond the traditional CAO route to achieve their educational and career goals.
That’s exactly what one young woman from Bettystown, Co Louth, has done.
Emily Callaghan chose to do a butcher’s apprenticeship after school when she realised it was what she was passionate about.
Knowing she had her apprenticeship lined up took ‘a huge weight’ off her shoulders on her own results day.
“It was great knowing I didn’t have to rely on a piece of paper from the Leaving Cert and being able to do something I’m actually really interested in and eager to learn more on,” she told RTÉ News.
Emily’s family have a butcher shop in Bettystown, but she did not think she would end up following in their footsteps.
“I was looking around the CAO and I knew an apprenticeship was the best thing for me. I’m always better at learning by doing, not just by sitting in a classroom or lecture hall all day,” she said.
“Working in the shop for the summer, I realised how much I actually like this trade and thought I should expand further on my knowledge of it. It’s amazing the amount you can learn from an apprenticeship like that.”
Emily wants young women to know they are ‘more than capable’ of working and excelling in male-dominated trades.
“I got a few odd looks when I told people I was doing the apprenticeship as they thought it was something women didn’t do, but I was there to show them that it is something we do,” she explained.
“Telling women to do male-dominated things is my favourite thing to do. We can do it and I know loads more women are capable of doing it too.”
For students getting their results who may be unsure of what the future holds, Emily is encouraging them to find their passion and go from there.
“There’s always something else to do if it doesn’t go well, there are so many PLC courses and apprenticeships out there for so many different ranges of careers. Once you find what you truly want to do and love to do, you’ll always be happy,” she said.