LC Life, Community and Work

LC Life, Community and Work

Curriculum Mapping
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This course equips students to navigate the transition from senior cycle into adult life through four integrated strands: understanding themselves, exploring post-school pathways, appreciating community, and engaging directly with the workplace. Students build a digital portfolio containing four Applied Learning Tasks, including a personal statement, career progression plan, collaborative community enterprise project using design thinking, and a reflective workplace placement report. They master SMARTER goal-setting, values clarification, transferable skills analysis, labour market research, and practical competencies in applications, interviews and enterprise, developing self-awareness, adaptability and informed decision-making for Ireland’s evolving society and economy.
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The opening module of LCW builds the self-awareness and forward-looking decision-making that the rest of the course rests on. You explore who you are now (your values, aptitudes, achievements, interests and transferable skillset) and use that foundation to investigate the real pathways open to you after school. You set up your Digital Portfolio, meet the experiential learning cycle, and complete two Applied Learning Tasks: a Personal Statement and a Career Progression Plan aligned to it.

Strand 1: Understanding Myself
Welcome to LCW: Tell Me About Yourself
What Is Personal Development? the SMARTER Framework
Identifying Areas for Personal Development
A Goal That Lands After the Leaving Cert
Reviewing a Goal: on Track, Off Track, or Wrong Goal
What Are Values? Why They Matter
Priority Values: the Values Card-sort
Why Priority Values Change
Aptitudes: Your Natural Tendencies
Achievements: Hard-won Successes
Interests: Things You Enjoy
What Other People See
Self-assessment in Practice
Classifying Skills: Technical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal
Reading a Job Role Description
Transferable Skills: the Core Concept
How a Transferable Skillset Supports Adaptation
Recognising Your Strong Transferable Skills
Recognising Transferable Skills That Need Work
Feedback from Others: Why Self-reflection Has Limits
Receiving and Recording Feedback
What Is a Personal Statement, and What Is It for?
Different Formats of Personal Statement
Personal Statements as Foundational
Drafting Your First Personal Statement
Revising for Voice and Specificity
Peer Review and Feedback
Tailoring for an Audience
Saying It Out Loud
Strand 1.1 Synthesis and ALT 1 Bank
Strand 2: Understanding My Progression Opportunities
The Eight Pathways After School
Pathway Hierarchy and Guidance Balance
Apprenticeships in Ireland
Traineeships and Further Education and Training
Higher Education
Travel, Community, and the World of Work
What Is a Career Field?
What Drives Interest in a Career Field?
How to Research a Job Role: Methods
Conducting Your Research
How Your Personal Statement Connects to a Job Role
Additional Education and Training Opportunities
Providers of Education and Training
Investigating Specific Post-school Options
Opportunities and Challenges Across Providers
Why People Work
Changing Employment Patterns
Employment Rights: Universal Protections
Young Worker Protections
Employee Responsibilities
Tax, PRSI and Revenue Registration
Entrepreneurship in the Labour Market
Labour-market Trends and Their Drivers
Remote Work, Hybrid Work, Self-employment, Freelancing
AI in the Workplace
From Strand 1.2 Findings to Progression Milestones
Starting Your Career Progression Plan (ALT 2)
Drafting Your Career Progression Plan
Aligning the Career Progression Plan to the Personal Statement
Refining, Peer Review and Banking ALT 2

This module shifts from me and my future to me and the world I am part of: the local, national and global communities you belong to, and the workplace you are preparing to enter. You appreciate the role of community, recognise enterprise within it, develop transferable skills through a collaborative design-thinking task, and engage practically with the workplace through a work-experience or work-shadowing placement. Two Applied Learning Tasks land here, and your Personal Statement is revisited twice more so that by the end of LCW it reflects your full two-year development.

Strand 1: Appreciating My Community
What Is a Community?
Positive Influence of a Community
Volunteering: the Concept
Ways to Volunteer
Investigating a Real-life Community Issue
Forms of Enterprise
For-profit Business and Community Enterprise
Social Enterprises
Identifying Enterprise That Addresses a Community Need
Competencies Associated with Entrepreneurship
Critical Thinking and Problem-solving
Design Thinking: a Human-centred Approach
The Stages of Design Thinking
Forming Small Groups for the Collaborative Task
Clarifying: Choosing and Defining a Real-life Community Issue
Ideating: Generating Solutions
Developing: Refining the Strongest Idea
Implementing: a Realistic Plan
Reflecting on the Process
Presenting Your Collaborative Response
Mid-strand Personal Statement Revisit
Reflection Frameworks for ALT 3
Identifying Your Transferable Skills from the Task
Drafting Your ALT 3 Reflection
Peer Review and Revision
Build Your Placement Skill Log
Considering Audience for Future Presentations
Final ALT 3 Submission
Mid-year 2 Portfolio Review
What Strand 2.1 Taught You, and What You Take Into Work
Strand 2: Engaging with the Workplace
Methods of Applying for a Job
Components of a Job Application: CV and Cover Letter
AI in the Job Application Process
What Is a Competency-based Application Form?
Identifying Career- and Job-based Competencies
Using Authentic Examples to Illustrate Competencies
Completing a Competency-based Application Form
Shortlisting: How Applicants Are Selected
The Interview Process: Structure and Effective Personal Presentation
Practising an Interview
Dealing with Disappointment and Building Resilience
Why Broad Workplace Engagement Matters
Tailoring Your Personal Statement to the Placement
Making Contact with a Workplace Organisation
Workplace Conditions and Requirements
Public Social Media Presence: Opportunities and Risks
Setting Expectations for the Workplace
Briefing for Placement Day 1
Placement Day 2
Closing the Placement Well
Requesting Effective Workplace Feedback
Reflecting on Placement Feedback
Planning a Workplace Interview
Reflecting on Workplace Engagement
Linking the Placement Back to Your Progression
Final Personal Statement Revisit
ALT 4: Identifying Areas for Further Progress and Development
Drafting Your Response Plan
Creating and Assessing Your ALT 4 Plan
Course Synthesis and Portfolio in Action Readiness

The opening module of LCW builds the self-awareness and forward-looking decision-making that the rest of the course rests on. You explore who you are now (your values, aptitudes, achievements, interests and transferable skillset) and use that foundation to investigate the real pathways open to you after school. You set up your Digital Portfolio, meet the experiential learning cycle, and complete two Applied Learning Tasks: a Personal Statement and a Career Progression Plan aligned to it.

Strand 1: Understanding Myself
Welcome to LCW: Tell Me About Yourself
What Is Personal Development? the SMARTER Framework
Identifying Areas for Personal Development
A Goal That Lands After the Leaving Cert
Reviewing a Goal: on Track, Off Track, or Wrong Goal
What Are Values? Why They Matter
Priority Values: the Values Card-sort
Why Priority Values Change
Aptitudes: Your Natural Tendencies
Achievements: Hard-won Successes
Interests: Things You Enjoy
What Other People See
Self-assessment in Practice
Classifying Skills: Technical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal
Reading a Job Role Description
Transferable Skills: the Core Concept
How a Transferable Skillset Supports Adaptation
Recognising Your Strong Transferable Skills
Recognising Transferable Skills That Need Work
Feedback from Others: Why Self-reflection Has Limits
Receiving and Recording Feedback
What Is a Personal Statement, and What Is It for?
Different Formats of Personal Statement
Personal Statements as Foundational
Drafting Your First Personal Statement
Revising for Voice and Specificity
Peer Review and Feedback
Tailoring for an Audience
Saying It Out Loud
Strand 1.1 Synthesis and ALT 1 Bank
Strand 2: Understanding My Progression Opportunities
The Eight Pathways After School
Pathway Hierarchy and Guidance Balance
Apprenticeships in Ireland
Traineeships and Further Education and Training
Higher Education
Travel, Community, and the World of Work
What Is a Career Field?
What Drives Interest in a Career Field?
How to Research a Job Role: Methods
Conducting Your Research
How Your Personal Statement Connects to a Job Role
Additional Education and Training Opportunities
Providers of Education and Training
Investigating Specific Post-school Options
Opportunities and Challenges Across Providers
Why People Work
Changing Employment Patterns
Employment Rights: Universal Protections
Young Worker Protections
Employee Responsibilities
Tax, PRSI and Revenue Registration
Entrepreneurship in the Labour Market
Labour-market Trends and Their Drivers
Remote Work, Hybrid Work, Self-employment, Freelancing
AI in the Workplace
From Strand 1.2 Findings to Progression Milestones
Starting Your Career Progression Plan (ALT 2)
Drafting Your Career Progression Plan
Aligning the Career Progression Plan to the Personal Statement
Refining, Peer Review and Banking ALT 2

This module shifts from me and my future to me and the world I am part of: the local, national and global communities you belong to, and the workplace you are preparing to enter. You appreciate the role of community, recognise enterprise within it, develop transferable skills through a collaborative design-thinking task, and engage practically with the workplace through a work-experience or work-shadowing placement. Two Applied Learning Tasks land here, and your Personal Statement is revisited twice more so that by the end of LCW it reflects your full two-year development.

Strand 1: Appreciating My Community
What Is a Community?
Positive Influence of a Community
Volunteering: the Concept
Ways to Volunteer
Investigating a Real-life Community Issue
Forms of Enterprise
For-profit Business and Community Enterprise
Social Enterprises
Identifying Enterprise That Addresses a Community Need
Competencies Associated with Entrepreneurship
Critical Thinking and Problem-solving
Design Thinking: a Human-centred Approach
The Stages of Design Thinking
Forming Small Groups for the Collaborative Task
Clarifying: Choosing and Defining a Real-life Community Issue
Ideating: Generating Solutions
Developing: Refining the Strongest Idea
Implementing: a Realistic Plan
Reflecting on the Process
Presenting Your Collaborative Response
Mid-strand Personal Statement Revisit
Reflection Frameworks for ALT 3
Identifying Your Transferable Skills from the Task
Drafting Your ALT 3 Reflection
Peer Review and Revision
Build Your Placement Skill Log
Considering Audience for Future Presentations
Final ALT 3 Submission
Mid-year 2 Portfolio Review
What Strand 2.1 Taught You, and What You Take Into Work
Strand 2: Engaging with the Workplace
Methods of Applying for a Job
Components of a Job Application: CV and Cover Letter
AI in the Job Application Process
What Is a Competency-based Application Form?
Identifying Career- and Job-based Competencies
Using Authentic Examples to Illustrate Competencies
Completing a Competency-based Application Form
Shortlisting: How Applicants Are Selected
The Interview Process: Structure and Effective Personal Presentation
Practising an Interview
Dealing with Disappointment and Building Resilience
Why Broad Workplace Engagement Matters
Tailoring Your Personal Statement to the Placement
Making Contact with a Workplace Organisation
Workplace Conditions and Requirements
Public Social Media Presence: Opportunities and Risks
Setting Expectations for the Workplace
Briefing for Placement Day 1
Placement Day 2
Closing the Placement Well
Requesting Effective Workplace Feedback
Reflecting on Placement Feedback
Planning a Workplace Interview
Reflecting on Workplace Engagement
Linking the Placement Back to Your Progression
Final Personal Statement Revisit
ALT 4: Identifying Areas for Further Progress and Development
Drafting Your Response Plan
Creating and Assessing Your ALT 4 Plan
Course Synthesis and Portfolio in Action Readiness

Curriculum Mapping

See exactly how this course maps to official curriculum specifications

LC Life, Community & Work
Curriculum Area
Outcomes
Module 1 - Strand 1: Understanding Myself
Personal development
LCW.M1.S1.PD.1 LCW.M1.S1.PD.2
My values
LCW.M1.S1.VAL.1 LCW.M1.S1.VAL.2 LCW.M1.S1.VAL.3 LCW.M1.S1.VAL.4
My skillset
LCW.M1.S1.SKL.1 LCW.M1.S1.SKL.2 LCW.M1.S1.SKL.3 LCW.M1.S1.SKL.4 LCW.M1.S1.SKL.5 LCW.M1.S1.SKL.6
Personal statements
LCW.M1.S1.PS.1 LCW.M1.S1.PS.2
Applied Learning Task 1: Personal Statement
LCW.M1.S1.ALT1.1
Module 1 - Strand 2: Understanding my Progression Opportunities
Exploring my progression opportunities
LCW.M1.S2.PROG.1 LCW.M1.S2.PROG.2 LCW.M1.S2.PROG.3 LCW.M1.S2.PROG.4 LCW.M1.S2.PROG.5
Work in its broadest sense
LCW.M1.S2.WORK.1 LCW.M1.S2.WORK.2 LCW.M1.S2.WORK.3 LCW.M1.S2.WORK.4 LCW.M1.S2.WORK.5 LCW.M1.S2.WORK.6 LCW.M1.S2.WORK.7 LCW.M1.S2.WORK.8
Applied Learning Task 2: Career Progression Plan
LCW.M1.S2.ALT2.1
Module 2 - Strand 1: Appreciating my Community
Appreciating my community
LCW.M2.S1.COM.1 LCW.M2.S1.COM.2 LCW.M2.S1.COM.3 LCW.M2.S1.COM.4 LCW.M2.S1.COM.5
Enterprise in the community
LCW.M2.S1.ENT.1 LCW.M2.S1.ENT.2 LCW.M2.S1.ENT.3
Collaborative problem-solving to support the development of a transferable skillset
LCW.M2.S1.CPS.1 LCW.M2.S1.CPS.2 LCW.M2.S1.CPS.3 LCW.M2.S1.CPS.4
Applied Learning Task 3: Reflection on the Collaborative Problem-Solving Task
LCW.M2.S1.ALT3.1
Module 2 - Strand 2: Engaging with the Workplace
Applying for a job
LCW.M2.S2.APP.1 LCW.M2.S2.APP.2 LCW.M2.S2.APP.3 LCW.M2.S2.APP.4 LCW.M2.S2.APP.5 LCW.M2.S2.APP.6 LCW.M2.S2.APP.7
Preparing for and engaging with the workplace
LCW.M2.S2.ENG.1 LCW.M2.S2.ENG.2 LCW.M2.S2.ENG.3 LCW.M2.S2.ENG.4 LCW.M2.S2.ENG.5 LCW.M2.S2.ENG.6 LCW.M2.S2.ENG.7 LCW.M2.S2.ENG.8 LCW.M2.S2.ENG.9 LCW.M2.S2.ENG.10
Applied Learning Task 4: Plan Responding to Workplace Feedback
LCW.M2.S2.ALT4.1

The curriculum does not include official reference codes for individual learning outcomes, so we have assigned a code scheme to make it easier to identify and track coverage.

What Students Will Learn

Learning Goals

  1. Develop deep self-awareness by identifying personal values, aptitudes, achievements, interests, and transferable skills, and articulating these through an evolving personal statement and digital portfolio.
  2. Understand the full range of post-school progression pathways in Ireland and create a realistic, SMARTER-aligned career progression plan that connects self-knowledge to future opportunities.
  3. Recognise the importance of community, enterprise, and collaborative problem-solving by investigating local issues, applying design thinking, and producing a credible group proposal.
  4. Build practical workplace readiness through job application skills, interview practice, work placement, feedback gathering, and reflective practice that links experience to personal development.
  5. Develop a growth mindset and lifelong learning habits by regularly revisiting goals, incorporating feedback, tracking transferable skill development, and planning for continued progress beyond the course.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Set up and maintain a digital portfolio that records personal development, self-assessments, and all four Applied Learning Tasks.
  2. Apply the SMARTER framework to create, review, and revise personal goals based on audits of values, aptitudes, achievements, interests, and skills.
  3. Write, revise, and tailor a personal statement that evidences strengths and is used as a foundation for applications and progression planning.
  4. Research and compare post-school pathways, providers, and job roles, then produce a career progression plan containing short-, medium-, and long-term SMARTER goals.
  5. Participate in a collaborative design-thinking project to address a real community issue, then reflect on the transferable skills developed using a chosen reflection framework.
  6. Complete a full competency-based job application, prepare for and practise interviews, and undertake a structured three-day workplace placement.
  7. Generate, receive, and reflect on feedback from peers, teachers, and workplace mentors to identify areas for further development and create an evaluated response plan.

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