There is strong demand among the current crop of leaving certificate students to study agricultural science at third-level, the latest figures from the Central Applications Office (CAO) show.

For this year’s leaving certificate, 7,866 students sat the agricultural science paper.

Some 591 students have agriculture/horticulture down as their first preference this year, an increase from the 483 that had it down as a first preference last year.

Overall, the figures show that almost 2,800 students put down agriculture/horticulture as a preference on their CAO form, with numbers up again from last year’s 2,328.

Green cert

The demand for third-level courses also corresponds with demand for places on Teagasc’s Green Cert courses.

Teagasc was approved to appoint 70 temporary education officers in the period 2014-2016, as demand for places was so high.

Furthermore, 15 new temporary education officers were approved early this year to provide additional courses in areas where there was high demand.

In November, some 3,500 people were waiting to be accepted onto Green Cert courses. Teagasc would normally have to deal with about 500 applications in one year.

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