Today you work three post-school routes that often get less airtime than college or apprenticeships: travel, community, and going straight into work.

Entrepreneurship belongs with these routes too; you will give it its own lesson later in the strand. Today is travel, community, and direct entry only.

You will argue through three real eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds standing at those doors, then write one concrete twelve-month step into your Pathway Investigation in the Strand 1.2 folder. If you already have a pathways map from earlier in the strand, open it and continue in that file (rename or save it as Pathway Investigation if needed). If you do not have one yet, you will build today’s write from scratch in Pathway Investigation and that still counts.

Three terms you will use when you choose a door and write your first real step.

Part 1: scenario cards (class)

Work the scenario cards as a class. For each person, decide what you would actually do and what the real consequences are: money, time, paperwork, who you contact, and what you give up. Aim to hear different calls from the room before anyone writes their own step.

Part 2: your write (independent)

Open or create your Pathway Investigation document in the Strand 1.2 folder. This is the working document for this strand’s pathway evidence (it feeds later career-progression and Portfolio in Action work; today’s lesson is not a named ALT). One file only: if you already have a pathways map from earlier in the strand, continue in that file under the Pathway Investigation name. You are not writing another summary of a category. You are choosing one of the three doors and naming the first concrete step you would take inside the next twelve months.

Format: add a dated section headed Twelve-month step: Travel, Community, or Direct entry. Keep any earlier map rows; do not delete them. Under the new heading, write three short paragraphs:

• which door you are taking and why it fits you (use something real from your personal statement or earlier pathway work if you have it)
• the first real step inside twelve months: who you would contact, what it costs (or how you will find the current cost), and what you would need to have ready
• one line on what you would be putting off or giving up if you took this door first

A named visa scheme, a named organisation, or a named employer beats a vague wish. If you cannot name one yet, write the exact search you will do this week and where you will look (for example Careers Portal, Apprenticeship.ie, your local ETB, or the relevant embassy or immigration visa page).

Non-negotiable look-fors before you stop: a named contact or scheme (or a precise search plan), a cost or a clear plan to find the current cost, and something you would need ready (passport, Safe Pass, reference, CV, transport plan).

Talk these through with the person beside you, then decide whether anything in your investigation needs a sharper line before you leave.

• Re-open the same Pathway Investigation document you wrote in. Re-read the twelve-month step you just added. Which line still has no named person, organisation, scheme, or cost-finding plan, and what would you tighten before you go?
• If that step is still thin, what is the smallest action you could take this week so the line becomes real?

The Pathway Investigation entry is the portfolio artefact for this lesson. A named twelve-month step will be reused when you build your career progression plan and Portfolio in Action work later in the strand. A two-line belief-shift note (what you believed about these three doors before today, and what you believe now) is optional reflection for later unless your teacher collects it; it is not required evidence for this period.

Today you put three real post-school routes beside apprenticeships, FET and Higher Education and argued them for consequences.

• Travel, community and direct-entry work as real pathways, not leftovers
• Three eighteen- and nineteen-year-old scenarios argued for consequences, contacts and costs
• Your Pathway Investigation (Strand 1.2): one chosen door, why it fits you, and a first concrete twelve-month step in a dated section
• A quick tighten of that same write before you left
• Entrepreneurship flagged for a later lesson in this strand

This investigation feeds later career-progression and Portfolio in Action work; it is not logged as a named ALT on this lesson. Optional stretch: add a second, weaker door with a lighter twelve-month step so you can compare the two when you build your career progression plan later.