Kildare man who was 'lost' in LC finds his way in tech
As thousands of students prepare to sit their Leaving Cert exams, we are hearing from young people who took alternative paths to the CAO points race.
In 2020, Kildare native Jack Yeates was not sure what he wanted to do when his time in secondary school wrapped up.
Diagnosed with dyslexia as a young child, he knew that taking an academic route after school was not something that he wanted to do.
"My idea was always that I wasn't going to be this big academic scholar by any means, but I still wanted to do as best as I could," he said.
When he was discussing his options with career guidance counsellors, Jack said that he was more drawn to apprenticeships and community colleges.
"I always enjoyed more physical subjects in school, like construction, and it was from that that I was recommended maybe being an electrician or a network site engineer. That's where my focus was."
In the year after he graduated from school, Jack worked full time in retail and in September of 2021, he did a Post Leaving Cert course in Advanced Computer Science at St Conleth's Community College in Newbridge.
PLC courses usually last one to two years and after Jack completed his year-long course, he began making applications for a two-year apprenticeship in software development.
After receiving offers from three companies, Jack began his apprenticeship at Salesforce, a cloud-software company which has its European headquarters based in Dublin.
"The PLC was a bit of a shot in the dark," Jack said.
"It was something that I got real enjoyment out of and it gave me a broad scope of the industry and I thought 'You know what? Maybe I could make something of myself in this industry'."
In August of last year, Jack completed his apprenticeship and won the ICT Apprenticeship of the Year Award the following October.
After his apprenticeship ended, Jack was on the lookout for jobs and came across a role in Salesforce, which he felt suited him.
He secured the position and began working as a Customer Centric Engineer for the company last February.
"I found that the job scope and what they were looking for really suited what I had done in the past, and I believe my apprenticeship stood to me massively," he said.
Now, Jack is keen for people to know that exams are not the only option and that there are other paths that can be taken after secondary school.
"There were days when a lot of my classmates would be going off to college open days and writing down their dream colleges and dream courses," he said.
"It did get a little disheartening at a stage, you do generally feel a little bit lost in that kind of way when you've made up your mind that 'college isn't for me'."
"One exam isn't the 'be all, end all' for you," he said.
"There's so many doors that can open if you just go looking for them.
"Sometimes they won't show to you, you just have to really go and look for them yourself."
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Irish Examiner
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