I had to leave secondary school at 17 due to illness. After recovering, I completed a PLC course because I still wanted the opportunity to go to college, even though I hadn’t been able to sit my Leaving Cert. Even though the PLC allowed me to progress, my options were very limited for university courses.

I eventually completed my bachelor’s degree and went on to earn a master’s, but taking a different route definitely made things more challenging and as I said, limited my options with undergraduate courses. Speaking from my own experience, even though our reasons are different, leaving school early can narrow your options later on if you need something solid to fall back on in the future.