After the Leaving Certificate, some people go straight into a paid apprenticeship, some do a short training course linked to an employer, and some do a one-year course at a local college or Education and Training Board. Those three routes get mixed up constantly, even by people choosing between them.

Today you will look at what actually separates them, feature by feature, and then investigate one real course in your own county that a person could start after school. A summary copied from a brochure is not the work. The finish is an argument: why this route beats the nearest apprenticeship or Higher Education path to the same job.

Three terms you will use for the rest of this work. Read the table, then keep them in mind when you sort the feature cards.

On the National Framework, a QQI Level 5 award is often a one-year PLC or entry-to-work qualification that can lead into employment, further FET, or advanced entry to Higher Education. A QQI Level 6 award is typically more advanced or specialised and can strengthen the link into Higher Education or more senior roles. When you write your closing argument, say where this award level can take someone next.

Apprenticeships are usually longer, employer-based and paid from early on. Traineeships are shorter and often blend classroom and workplace. FET classroom routes (including many PLCs) are ETB- or college-led and frequently carry QQI Level 5 or 6 awards that can open employment, specialisation or advanced entry into Higher Education.

Part 1: the sort (about 5 minutes). Drag each feature card into the route you think it belongs to, and be ready to tell your partner why. The borderline cards are the ones worth the argument.

Part 2: your FET Investigation (the rest of the step). In your Digital Portfolio, open the folder named Strand 1.2 (make it if it is not there yet) and start a new document in it called FET Investigation Strand1.2. If you began one in an earlier lesson, open that instead of starting again. Set out these headings down the page:

• Provider name and location
• QQI level (or equivalent award)
• Length
• What it costs (fees, materials, travel if listed)
• Where it leads (work, further FET, advanced entry to HE)
• What this level lets someone do next (and whether a Level 6 would change that path)
• Nearest apprenticeship or Higher Education route to the same job
• Closing argument: why this FET course instead (at least two concrete differences)

Pick one real FET course available in your county (PLC, ETB programme or traineeship). Choose a job or field you would actually consider yourself, or one you have looked into before. Use Qualifax, Careers Portal, fetchcourses.ie or your local ETB course list.

Then write the closing argument that makes this more than a brochure: name the nearest apprenticeship or Higher Education route to the same job, and argue why you would take this FET course instead. Use at least two concrete differences (length, cost, entry, pay while learning, location, or what you can do on day one after finishing).

Before you leave: you need a named local course and a draft of the closing comparison. Thin cost or entry lines can be finished before next lesson; an investigation with no named alternative is not banked yet.

This investigation stays in your Digital Portfolio. You will come back to it later in the year, and it is one of the pieces you can use for the assessment called Portfolio in Action, where you present work you have gathered on pathways.

Talk these through with the person beside you, then decide whether your FET Investigation still needs a sharper closing argument before you leave.

• If someone only read the first half of your investigation, would they know the course, or would they only know that FET exists?
• In your closing argument, which single difference would matter most to you in twelve months: pay while learning, time to qualification, cost, location, or where the award can take you next?

Portfolio action (optional): in FET Investigation Strand1.2, add one line naming the weakest fact you still need to check, and where you will check it.

You sorted real features of Irish progression routes, and you investigated a local FET option with a genuine comparison attached to it.

• Apprenticeships, traineeships and FET classroom routes differ in length, who leads the training, pay, and typical awards
• QQI Level 5 often supports entry to work, further FET or advanced entry; Level 6 is typically more advanced or specialised. Both sit at the centre of many FET programmes
• Your FET Investigation Strand1.2 names one real course in your county (provider, level, length, cost, where it leads, and what that level opens next)
• The build is finished only when you argue why that course beats the nearest apprenticeship or HE route to the same job

Keep FET Investigation Strand1.2 in your Strand 1.2 folder in your Digital Portfolio. You will come back to it later and see whether the argument you made today still holds once you know more, and it is one of the pieces you can draw on for Portfolio in Action.