IS Transition Year a good thing and are career guidance teachers doing their doing jobs properly? A recent assessment of some 100 post Leaving Cert students could show that the Transition Year is failing up to 10 per cent of students.

Dr Ciaran O'Boyle, professor of psychology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, has conducted psychological assessments on post-Leaving Cert young people for job placements and his findings make interesting reading.

"I've interviewed about 100 young people and found that, in 10 to 12 cases, ability was not matched by their Leaving Cert performance," he says. The students had performed extremely well in Junior Cert and achieved high scores in aptitude tests given by O'Boyle.

However, when it came to Leaving Cert, the students had failed to achieve their potential. O'Boyle identified a link between this underachievement and Transition Year.

"A lot of students said that they had worked well for Junior Cert, but described Transition Year as `a doss' - they had got out of the habit of studying and found it hard to get back to it." O'Boyle says that, while he has seen a number of students who have clearly gained a lot from Transition Year, he is concerned that in some schools Transition Year is failing. "Success relates to the effort and commitment of the teacher," he says. "If you have a child who is not internally motivated, he or she could become demotivated by the Transition Year experience."

O'Boyle suggests that we should consider integrating Transition Year goals into the whole of the junior and senior cycles. "It's worrying to see people achieving good results in Junior Cert and in the aptitude tests but then turning in such poor Leaving Cert performances."

His assessments have also highlighted a career guidance problem. "A lot of guidance counsellors are giving students information about jobs, but they're failing to give them assessments. A kid says he or she is interested in a particular job, the guidance counsellor gets the information and that's the end of it.

"I think it would be better if young people had better insights into their strengths and abilities. Nowadays so many of them want to go into business and computers and you have to wonder if they wouldn't be better going into other areas.

"Students are past masters at working the system and, rather than doing the subjects they are interested in, they choose subjects in which they believe it's easier to achieve high points. Young people are on a conveyor belt and you have to wonder about their development. They're not choosing subjects they're interested in or which they're good at."

More investment in good quality career guidance is vital, says Ciaran O'Boyle. Career guidance should be about more than just the provision of information. "It should include more formalised assessments of strengths, interests and ability. This would give students a clearer idea about careers which would interest them."