- Benefits of Transition Year Study Abroad experiences for an Irish student
- Study abroad during TY boost your language skills
- Cultural awareness as a major benefits of TY programs abroad
- Academic enrichment while studying abroad in Transition Year
- Embrace the world during TY: grow quicker and better!
- Why book a study abroad program during your TY?
Benefits of Transition Year Study Abroad experiences for an Irish student
Ireland has a really unique educational system. The so-called Transition Year (also names TY), which is equivalent to a 10th grade in the USA or the Seconde in France, is a year of transition between middle school and high school. This is a year that you attend at approximately 15 years old, before starting the 5th and 6th Years and prepare for your Irish Leaving Certificate.
Transition Year only exists in Ireland! How lucky you are! It allows you to have various academic, cultural and professional experiences that are meant to help you choose your subjects in 5th Year for your Leaving Certificate.
This year may also help you to think about your professional project.
In this article, we would like to explain the benefits of doing a Transition Year Abroad program for Irish students. As you will see, those benefits are not only related to enhanced international skills, improved foreign language knowledge and practice, or even strong intercultural skills. They go beyond.
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Study abroad during TY boost your language skills
The first benefit you may think about is language proficiency. Irish students learn at least one Foreign language at High School level, usually the French language, but sometimes Spanish or German. They do have a Foreign language exam among their Leaving Certificate exams. Language proficiency is thus crucial for you!
While you start studying a foreign language before Transition Year, this special year gives you the opportunity to travel abroad as an exchange student and boost your language skills. France is thus a popular destination for Irish students during their TY, as French remains the most largely taught foreign language in Ireland.
Whatever the experience you choose, and it could be a French Homestay immersion, a French school exchange, or a French language course, the expected benefit of the French language immersion remains:
- an improvement of the language knowledge,
- a better command of the spoken language and confidence
- enriched vocabulary, writing, and speaking skills
- as well as better fluency.
Irish students usually come back home with a much better preparation for their final 2 years of French and their finale French Leaving Certificate exam. Do not miss this!
Enroll in Transition Year programs in France
If language proficiency is the only benefit of the TY study abroad experience, why would some Irish students choose to travel to the USA for their Transition Year? For cultural awareness.
Cultural awareness as a major benefits of TY programs abroad
Cultural awareness is a benefit of any travel abroad. Going out of your comfort zone and leaving a country and a culture that you perfectly know is for sure a challenge, but also a rewarding experience!
If you choose to travel abroad during your TY, you will explore new languages, new lifestyles, new environments, and new daily routines. You will face cultural differences and sometimes cultural misunderstandings! You will learn how to adapt to en country and culture that you do not know well and that has so much to give you!
This is why some Irish students choose to do their TY study abroad program in an English-speaking country, like the USA or Canada for example. If the language spoken is common (English) -even if the spoken language is always slightly different from one country to another- Irish students still gain cultural awareness because the English-speaking countries' cultures are so different from each other.
Nacel offer Irish students to spend 1 or 2 months in a Boarding school in the USA during their TY. They live in a different environment than the one they are used to, live with American and international students on campus, and discover the American school system, as well as new meal habits and daily routines. They live for some weeks like an American teen.
Other students may wish to do a similar experience but in Germany, living with a Germany host family for some weeks and going to a local High School. Host family and school immersion in Germany is probably a more challenging program due to the language but the best way to deeply experience German culture.
High school Transition Year abroad options
Traveling abroad during TY develop your intercultural skills: you learn to understand, adapt, and accept other cultures and traditions. You develop adaptability skills and agility that will be useful for your future studies and life.
Irish schools encourage their TY students to look for study abroad programs as they are convinced that it is beneficial in terms of tolerance, empathy, and global citizenship. Being exposed to different perspectives and worldviews in the countries they study in, indeed helps you to have more relative points of view and opinions on world affairs too.
An additional benefit been the development of your critical thinking skills as well. Irish schools also understand the additional academic benefits of studying abroad during TY.
Academic enrichment while studying abroad in Transition Year
As mentionned earlier, the Transition Year in the Irish school system is meant to help Irish students make the right choices for their subjects for the final years, the 5th and 6th Year. The objective for Irish students is to explore: explore new subjects, new interests, new skills as well as test their motivations and goals for their future studies and careers.
As such, if you decide to move to France or to Spain for a few months and attend school over there, you will have a chance to discover academic subjects you do not know about; or sometimes similar subjects but taught in a different way that may generate more interest! You will also see how students in a different country prepare for University, or the types of subjects they can choose for their 11th and 12th grade (equivalent to 5th and 6th Year).
10th grade students in France for example study classic subjects such Math, French Literature, Physics, Chemistry, Biology but also Geology, Sustainable development in Geography course, as well as social and economic sciences. You would join these classes with your French classmates.
10th grade students in Spain would also study Spanish Language and Literature, History and Geography, English language, Math but may also choose among Economics, Physics and Chemistry, Biology and Geology, Latin, Classic Culture, Scientific Culture, Philosophy, Music, or Information and Communication Technology.
As such, the high school exchange programs abroad during TY is a good way to expand students' academic horizons. It complements the Irish curriculum with international exposure. Last but not least, such an experience abroad at this age is also valuable on a CV and for future University or Job applications. It demonstrates your ability to go beyond the expectations, challenge yourself, and your openmindness to international experiences. Definitively an asset on the job market nowadays!
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Studying abroad during Transition Year also impacts your personal development and skills.
Embrace the world during TY: grow quicker and better!
Studying abroad during TY helps 15 years old students to grow quicker and better. Why?
- They become more autonomous and independent;
- They challenge themselves and find internal resources to face difficulties;
- They enlarge their social network and social skills;
- They improve their communication skills;
- They develop project management skills as they manage their enrolment in the study abroad program;
- They come back with new ideas, new horizons, new friends, new perspectives;
- They go out of their comfort zone and adapt to be comfortable again;
- They learn to manage their time, schedule, transport and money more independently;
- They come back with memories for a life time.
Transition Year study abroad programs give Irish students a unique opportunity to grow academically, socially, and personally, while gaining skills and insights that benefit them throughout their lives. What are you still waiting for? :-)
Why book a study abroad program during your TY?
The answers are listed above! Transition Year is a very unique opportunity for Irish students to explore a foreign country and gain valuable life experiences and language skills. Immersing in a language and culture abroad, even for a few weeks or a few months, is a challenging and rewarding experience.
You may be accompanied by a specialized organization offering Transition Year abroad programs, like Nacel. The study abroad programs offer a fantastic chance to visit a new country like France, Spain or Germany for example. Start exploring now!
Contact your counselor in your Irish school to ask when would be the best time for you to travel abroad. Next step: start explore TY programs abroad an contact your Nacel advisor to get the best advises.