Student Slingshot Academy was launched last week in Filmbase, Templebar. The Academy aims to promote a new approach to education and careers for Transition Year students.
Reports from the Higher Education Authority state that approximately 7,000 first year college students drop out of their course. Although finance can play a big role, often students drop out because the course wasn’t what they expected or simply didn’t like it.
Worrying about picking the right course and getting the points is a vivid secondary school memory for many. Perhaps, Student Slingshot Academy will be what is needed to aid Transition Year students in making important career decisions.
Founder Patrick Guiney said “We want to ensure that students pick the right course, learn a new skill and bring their focus back to what they want to do”.
College students have been selected by an application process to be mentors for the Student Slingshot Academy. Starting on March 15th, the mentors will meet once a month with the Transition Year students and guide them in a number of areas such as medicine, law, journalism and art. Professionals in the areas will also attend, to give advice and help develop the sessions further.
The cold didn’t deter the representatives and partners from Student Slingshot Academy as they posed for photos outside Filmbase. Spunout.ie, Schooldays.ie, Irish Second Level Students Union and the Digital Youth Council have all come on board as partners.
One of the people attending the launch was Transition Year student Harry McCann. Harry founded his own start up, Digital Youth Council, when he was fifteen. The Council gives young people in Ireland an opportunity to influence the future of technology in education, through mini-councils which then report back to the Irish Government and EU Commission. An impressive feat considering it’s the first of its kind in Europe.
Harry spoke of the approach that Secondary School students should be taking: “Students need to be more proactive, they need to go out and look at what is on offer to them and I feel Student Slingshot is the perfect opportunity for any student to start”.
Roisin Nestor
Image Credit: studentslingshot.com
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