The PLC sector is generally for students who want to get into the jobs market fast. The majority of the 20,000-plus students who enrolled in the PLC sector last year had their sights fixed on starting work sooner rather than later. This was the primary reason for the development of PLC courses in the first place.

One of the major strengths of PLC colleges is their ability to respond rapidly to the changing needs of the market place. A glance at the new modules made available from last September gives some idea of the breadth of the courses on offer - design, book-keeping (manual and computerised), payroll (manual and computerised), teleservices, security systems and procedure, customer service, stage management and administration, production design for theatre, technical skills for theatre, pre-press graphics, image processing and computer illustration graphics.

There is a skills shortage in the teleservices area and an innovative two-year PLC course has been designed to address the skills gap. This course equips students with language, information technology and communication skills.

There are no tuition fees for PLC courses and PLC students are now eligible to apply for means-tested maintenance grants.

The introduction of maintenance grants by the Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin, at the start of the current academic year was greeted by teachers, colleges, students and parents with relief and delight.

More than £15 million has been set aside by the Government to foot this bill. Most of the money for this year is currently being paid out to students.

There is no central application system for PLC courses. Students must apply directly to each college and places are usually allocated on the basis of an interview (a portfolio may be required for certain courses). Popular courses tend to fill early and some colleges hold interviews in May.

Most PLC students follow one-year courses which lead to the award of a National Vocational Certificate Award (NCVA) level 2. All level 2 certificates are modular in structure. Students must reach the required standard in at least eight modules to qualify for a certificate.

The modules must include five vocational modules, two general studies (one of which must be communications) and a work experience module. In the past, many students regarded PLC courses as a useful fallback if they didn't get what they wanted through the CAO system. This is no longer the case; the Post Leaving Certificate sector also offers some students a way of gaining access to third-level courses.

This is one of the newer avenues of progression to third level which is available to Leaving Cert students. The main aim of PLC courses is to prepare students directly for employment, but a higher education links scheme now links certain PLC courses with a variety of third-level certificates and diplomas in the institutes of technology. About 1,500 places are available on more than 200 courses.

All of the institutes of technology participating in the links scheme, with the exception of Dublin Institute of Technology, award places solely on the basis of PLC results, so students who did not get sufficient points in the traditional Leaving Cert can use this route to get to college if they perform sufficiently well at PLC level.

The DIT insists that students have achieved the minimum Leaving Cert entry requirements for the particular course.

In 1994, the first year of the NCVA qualification, 5,000 graduates received a certificate. The following year the figure jumped to 8,000. Last year it was up to 15,000.

In all, 50,000 certificates have been awarded - the annual numbers have trebled since the system was introduced.

ESRI research shows that almost 90 per cent of award-holders gain employment immediately on completion of their courses.

College principals stress the job focus of PLC courses. The courses are vocational in their bias, as well as being academically challenging.

In Dublin city alone, more than 6,000 students are currently doing PLC courses. In the Cork College of Commerce, just under 1,000 students were placed in full-time employment after the 1997-98 academic year.

If you are applying for a PLC course with third level in mind, you must check that the particular PLC you are interested in is linked with a third-level course.

The NCVA publishes a guide to the higher education links scheme which includes a list of PLC courses along with the corresponding third-level courses (the NCVA can be contacted by telephoning (01) 853 1910).

Dr Dermot Douglas, the registrar of Tallaght IT, explains that the advantage of going the PLC route is that it allows you time to find out whether you are suited to a particular discipline.

In the meantime, you pick up a useful qualification.

A college prospectus may also list these courses. For instance, if you turn to pages 18 and 19 of the prospectus for the newest IT - in Blanchardstown - you will find that students who have completed NCVA courses in business studies (BBSXX), business studies administration (BBSAX), marketing (BMXXX) or information processing (BIPXX) are eligible to apply for reserved places on the IT's certificate in business studies.

Similarly, linking PLC courses are listed for the college's other three full-time third-level courses.

NCVA students apply through the CAO in the normal way and their PLC results are forwarded automatically to the CAO. Places are awarded on the basis of students' performance.

NCVA candidates are not competing with Leaving Certificate students, because 1,500 places are specifically reserved for them. But, they may have to compete with each other. However, not all of these places are taken up and competition occurs only in high-demand courses. Douglas suggests that students maximise their chances by following their choice of course around the State.

It is more difficult to get places in urban colleges - higher population density means more competition.

In general, if the Leaving Cert cut-off points are high for a course - meaning the course is in strong demand with school-leavers - then there will also be high demand from NCVA holders.

Douglas says these students are at some advantage in first year as they already have background in the area. Butthey are competing on an equal footing from second year.

Students who have progressed via the PLC route tend to be focused and know what they want, so they usually do well, he says.

The ladder system, whereby students can progress from certificates to diplomas to degrees to postgraduate qualifications, is open to PLC holders who commence their third-level studies at certificate or diploma level. Therefore a student can progress all the way from PLC to PhD if he or she performs sufficiently well in the intervening exams.