ABSTRACT
The Access to Post-primary Teaching (APT) project at St. Angela’s College, Sligo, involves the development of a supported Further Education (FE) route to initial teacher education (ITE). This chapter explores the experiences of 4 of the 14 FE students who participated in APT in the third year of the project, but who ultimately decided not to progress to ITE. The students took part in individual semi-structured interviews about their pathways through the Irish education system, from pre-school to FE, and their experiences of the APT project. They viewed their FE course as socially and academically beneficial, as was the APT project, which provided the opportunity to experience higher education and to explore teaching as a career through taking taster classes alongside current ITE students. Social support was central to their experiences and ultimately informed students’ decisions to take a step in a different direction.
