What is Life, Community & Work (LCW)?
The Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme (LCVP) was an initiative designed to enhance the vocational dimension of the traditional Leaving Certificate course. The programme was introduced in 1994 in response to the challenge placed on Ireland’s education system by a changing work and business environment. However, in line with the current ongoing redevelopment of Senior Cycle, LCW is included in the next tranche of subjects to be rolled out to commence in September 2026 to replace what we currently know as LCVP.
Leaving Certificate Life, Community and Work provides a variety of practical learning opportunities for students to engage with their local community and the wider world, supporting them to develop their own understanding of their personal contribution to society. Personal development and effectiveness is a cornerstone of the specification, where students have opportunities to develop self-awareness by understanding their own unique strengths, aptitudes, interests and achievements; and developing an appreciation of their unique contribution to a modern and sustainable society.
As students engage with LCW they learn how to make informed decisions as they prepare for their future post-school lives, which includes a focus on building workplace and career foundations in addition to active citizenship. Students have multiple opportunities to build and develop their personal reflective capacity to support their decision-making processes.
Through studying LCW, students also have the opportunity to develop a broad range of transferable skills within a set of key competencies, which are necessary to nurture the development of life-long learners who engage effectively in society. Competencies such as communicating, working with others and managing learning and self as well as the skills associated with managing and presenting information and becoming digitally literate can be developed through engagement with this specification. Through students’ engagement with LCW, the development of an enterprising mindset is fostered as students have opportunities to develop and demonstrate creativity, innovation and resilience, developing their confidence to adapt to the challenges and opportunities of the modern world.
Aims of LCW
Students of Life, Community and Work develop an appreciation of the importance of personal development and effectivenes as they engage with the world around them. Students have multiple opportunities to develop a broad range of transferable skills, within a set of key competencies, that help support students to avail of opportunities where they can apply these skills to a range of real-life experiences.
The aims of Life, Community and Work are to:
• develop an understanding of their personal strengths, aptitudes, interests and achievements
• build career and workplace foundations in order to support more informed decision-making for their future educational journey and career path
• appreciate their role in the local community and as national citizens
• develop and demonstrate an entrepreneurial mindset
• adapt better to the challenges and opportunities of the modern world.
What does LCW consist of?
LCW specification is composed of two integrated modules: Me and My Future; and Community and Work. Four strands are spread across the two modules, which are designed to be studied and engaged with, in a non-linear sequence and interwoven manner, as outlined below. At the end of each strand, an Applied Learning Task is outlined which provides opportunities for students to apply their learning to a learning outcome that incorporates the knowledge, skills, values and dispositions from their engagement with a number of learning outcomes, within and across the strands of study. The design of the Applied Learning Tasks supports students to revisit and continue to develop them over their two years of study, capturing a broader picture of a student's personal development and engagement with the course.
Click here to find more information online about LCW.
LCW Curriculum Specification
Portfolio in Action AAC Guidelines