From Blogger to Wordpress

I mentioned before, I wanted to transfer from Blogger to Wordpress software as Wordpress seems to have more features and I’ve had problems with Blogger.

Thanks to Steve the Wordpress blog is now working. Because the blog is hosted on the Quo Vadis web site we can’t do an automatic transfer of previous blog entries or update your RSS feed.

So if you’re reading this using an RSS feed, you’ll now need to click on this link and then click on the “subscribe in a reader” link on the top right of the page to make sure you continue to see new posts.

If you want to look back on previous posts you can still access them on the new Wordpress blog either by using the “search” button on the right hand side or clicking on the right hand side orange button “Working life advice & news from Ireland”

Thanks for reading

Apply for an in-service training grant

Just to let you know that Leargas are offering grants of up to €1,500 for training in another European country.

You have to be involved in some form of adult education, be it as a manager, teacher, counsellor, street advisor etc. (Part timers qualify as well)

It does not have to be a formal course- visiting a leading organisation in another country qualifies.

At the time of writing, the deadline on the Lèargas web site is out of date. Current deadlines for application are

31 January, 31 March, 30 June and 30 September.

Link to further information on event web site

career builder
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
Leargas Grants

Don’t choose courses by CAO points

A serious mistake is choosing 3rd level courses on the sole basis of the Leaving Certificate points required for entry in previous years. Some students (and their parents) assume high points means a good course with low points indicating a poor course.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The number of points required to enter a course are simply the result of supply and demand.
So a very simplified example. 100 students apply for a course with 10 places. So not all students will get in. The students with the highest number of points and required entry qualifications will be accepted. Let’s assume the top ten students have 475 points and all the entry requirements. So the points required to enter this course will be 475 points.

But now let’s assume the course has expanded to 100 places, all students with the entry requirements (say a pass in Maths) will be accepted. So points will not be quoted and you’ll usually see “AQA” – All Qualified Applicants accepted.
The course quality is exactly the same but points are lower.

The expansion of college places and reduction in the numbers sitting the Leaving Certificate means 3rd level colleges are now competing for students. Additionally the education sector is under funded and dependent on individual (capitation) grants which are based on the number of students.
Research funding however is increasing, but good research requires a ready supply of academic high flyers , who commonly come from the college’s own student population. Colleges are thus likely to have a vested interest in manipulating the CAO points to ensure their students are high academic achievers and also maintain “perceived prestige” for their colleges.

As Brian Mooney,( past President of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors) stated over 170 courses have 10 places or less. The Irish Times reports only 30 courses have more than 120 places out of a total of 1,200 different courses. Brian argues it is possible to offer all students eight or nine basic choices, and then allow specialisation in later years of study. A much more sensible approach as it allows students to take a more informed decisions on college choices. This would mean however that points would drop!
(See Irish Times for the full article. You have to pay the IT for this).

If we take Trinity’s very popular psychology course(TR006) which has no major capacity problems such as clinical work placements, there could be substantial increases from the existing 31 student places. However this would mean points would probably drop from the 545 points currently required.

UCD makes no bones about wanting only the best students but like other colleges also need to maximise their capitation grants. Whilst UCD has an excellent track record, less academically/socially able students will suffer in the more impersonal atmosphere of UCD. (They even use porters for crowd control in lecture theatres sometimes) In fact in order to retain students who are considering dropping out of science, UCD and Institute of Technology Tallaght have had tentative discussions about some UCD students transferring to the Tallaght science course, during the academic year.

So course quality involves selecting what’s right for you and points are not a reliable indicator. University degrees do have a certain snob value but this is decreasing. For example, contrary to past practise, Pricewaterhousecoopers now interview all candidates with a good accountancy degree irrespective of college. DIT’s architecture degree is generally more highly regarded than UCD’s equivalent.

So do your research on the course to see whether it will suit you. Enter your college choices on the CAO form in order of your preferences not in order of points required.
To find out more about how the points system works, please click here for a presentation by the CAO.

Others posts that may be of interest

Pick right CAO course for you
Look beneath surface - CAO trends
CAO change your mind time starts
CAO under attack

Key words
CAO Points
career advice Dublin
career guidance Ireland
career training Ireland

Having goals is important

I’m a great believer in setting goals because as Harvey Mackay says

“A dream is just a dream. A goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline”

I find setting goals and writing them on paper helps me to keep moving forward as I’m clearer to what I want. We usually know where we want to go when we turn the key in the car ignition, so why not know where we want to go in life?

Here’s a few tips on setting goals

First of all understand what’s important to you.
Is it family, money, fun, health, career advancement, friends ? Susan Jeffers in her book “feel the fear and do it anyhow” suggests making a nine box grid and putting the nine most important components in your life into it.
What changes would you like to make when you look at this grid? For example leisure might be important but you’re always too busy working or doing housework to get any, so a goal might be to have more leisure time. So make sure your goals relate to your grid.

Don’t set too many goals.
It’s very easy to get carried away and try to tackle every area of our lives, but it’s better to focus on one or two aspects, as then we can be more committed to these.

Leave out the “ I should have’s”.
For example, I had set a goal to migrate this blog from blogger to wordpress over Christmas. I did actually make some progress by helping a friend set up this blog on dual diagnosis but I decided it would take too much time to learn fully. Time I’d rather spend relaxing. I did not “should” on myself by saying “I should have done it”, as this creates a sense of failure. Instead I recognised I’d under estimated the time commitment so I’ll pay Steve our web site developer to do it instead .
I find this is often the biggest problem with clients I see. “I should have worked harder in college etc”

Be patient and let go.
We can’t always achieve our goals when we want to, so we have to be patient and wait sometimes. We have to let go. I had wanted to finish my psychology masters by February 08 but a family member’s illness and work demands meant a decision to defer. Hopefully I will finish by November 08 now. Again I’m not “shoulding” on myself.

So having set broad goals, often they need to be broken down into smaller targets, if they are very ambitious. In a work setting these are usually called objectives which many people use in their performance reviews. So some tips on setting objectives.

Make sure your objectives are specific and measurable.
Saying I want to be physically fitter is not as psychologically useful as saying "I will be be able to climb the stairs at work without panting and puffing half way through". You can actually measure this achievement as it’s very specific.

Make sure your objectives are achievable.
For example, saying “I want to be CEO of RyanAir before the 7th of January 08” is unlikely to be achievable. Focus your objectives on what you can control. So an achievable objective might be “I will have developed my management skills to ensure I’m in the running for future CEO jobs that might arise”

Make sure your objectives are realistic within your time scale and priorities.
So the person wanting more leisure time might find getting an hour a week to do something fun is more realistic before moving to a hour a day.
I’d like to post to this blog more often, but it’s not my priority to spend more time on this so I’ll have to find a way of getting information onto the blog quicker in 2008 for this objective to be realistic for me.

You’ll notice the tips for objective setting make up the acronym SMART :
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timed.


Finally don’t worry if you fail initially as the Japanese proverb says
"Fall seven times, stand up eight." If you can learn from your failures you’ll be further along the path towards your goal then when you started. Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb had thousands of failed experiments before he was successful.

Bo Bennett put it well when he said
"The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself."

Other posts that might be relevant

On promotion
Getting that promotion
Overlooked for promotion again
Persistence pays off for first female gondalier

Reviewing your job situation
Muddling along in job
Skills development- its never too late

Work life balance and money
are you handcuffed to money?
does work life balance work?