Your education questions answered: I was at a parents' night earlier in the year when my daughter was considering her subject choices. Because of the subjects she chose she was advised to take the LCVP. We were advised at the time that the points awarded for the programme by the universities were less than in the institutes of technology. My daughter tells me that this has now changed. Is this the case?

Your daughter is correct. When the LCVP was first introduced a number of years ago, the institutes of technology and colleges of further education awarded 70 points for a distinction, 50 points for a merit and 30 points for a pass, whereas the universities only awarded 50 points for a distinction, 40 for a merit and 30 for a pass.

It is a mark of the quality of those who developed and delivered the programme over the short period of its existence that the universities have now re-evaluated their position. They have decided that for students taking the Leaving Certificate in the current year, the points awarded for the LCVP will be 70 for a distinction, 50 for a merit and 30 for a pass. The only university not, as yet, to have raised the points they allocate for the LCVP to this level is Trinity College Dublin, which has a lengthy approvals procedure that is not yet complete.

This change should give great encouragement to students taking this programme. Sixty per cent of the marks are fully within their control as they are awarded for a portfolio of six items presented by the student at the end of their two years of work. The remaining 40 per cent are awarded for a short written examination held in the May of their Leaving Certificate year.

Brian Mooney is president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. E-mail questions to bmooney@irish-times.ie