As the date has closed for late CAO applications, a lot of people will be wondering what their future holds.

But the path isn’t always straight and obvious, there are many ways to skin a cat.

Co-host of the ‘Talking Bollox’ podcast Calvin O’Brien told Lunchtime Live that he would recommend students check out the National Tertiary Office (NTO), which offers certain honours degrees courses outside of the points system.

“What this is, is a no fees, no points system kind of way of getting in and getting a degree for people,” he said.

“You’re taking yourself out of the points race and it’s you going in and they give you an interview and see if you’re passionate about it and see what skill set you have.

“You’re not getting judged on getting the wrong mark in an exam and there’s no fees for the first couple years, depending on what course you do.

“You go and you learn in your local ETB and you then go on to a partner college.”

A graduation ceremony at a US college. Image: Ray Warren NYC / Alamy. 11 May 2011

Mr O’Brien said this “removes a little bit of that stress” that is brought on by the points race.

“I know a lot of people that missed out on their dream course by five, ten points,” he said.

“At the end of the day, that’s just a couple of marks in an exam, so are we really going to based people’s whole career and opportunities off whether to get one or two questions right in an exam?”

Over 40 different courses are offered by the NTO, including degrees in business, ICT, nursing, engineering and more.

Find out more at nto.hea.ie.

Main image: Students doing their Leaving Cert exams in Bandon, West Cork, 2022. Image: AG News / Alamy Stock Photo