- Most importantly, because it’s great fun! AILO helps you to learn about the languages of the world and you’ll enjoy solving the challenging puzzles.
- Sharpen your problem-solving skills. This will benefit you whatever career path you take, but it will be particularly useful if you are thinking of a career in computing, linguistics, languages, engineering, maths or science or – better still – a combination of these disciplines. Job prospects in these areas are among the strongest of all industries.
- Participating in AILO is an excellent extra-curricular experience to add to your CV or university application form. It shows that you have a logical mind and an ability to think outside the box.
- Representing your school at the national finals in Trinity College Dublin gives you the opportunity to pit your wits against problem solvers from all over Ireland and can be a great source of pride.
- There’s also the little matter of the fantastic prizes on offer! In addition to the opportunity to win the title of AILO Individual Champion in the Junior and Senior categories, the four top performing students in the individual contest at the national finals of the All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad are selected to represent Ireland at the International Linguistics Olympiad.
Honing Students’ Problem Solving Skills
The competition is honing students’ problem-solving skills and fostering the next generation of multilingual technology specialists for Ireland. A 2016 survey showed that 95% of participants consider AILO to have enhanced their problem-solving ability. Many past participants have gone on to pursue careers in Computer Science, Maths and Linguistics (or a combination thereof) at third level – some of who have returned to tutor new AILO participants.