This article is from page 62 of the 2009-11-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 62 JPG
CLOSE on 50 certificates were formally presented in Ennis Adult Education Centre to learners who took part in Clare Campus Skillnet courses. They were conferred by the Further Education and Training Awards Council of Ireland following courses of studies completed in the Ennis area in management develop- ment, presentation skills and English as a second language
By tar the biggest individual busi- ness representation was from the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis. All non-nation- als, this major group took its course in English as a second language in- house as well as at Ennis Adult and Community Education Centre.
They were joined for the occasion by the hotel’s manager, John Maher, as an expression of appreciation of their achievements.
Clare Campus Skillnet collabo- rates with County Clare Vocational Education Committee in the delivery of a diverse range of courses from basic skills to project management and green belt masters in technology management.
Its courses are original in that they are devised as the result requirements identified by local businesses and en- terprises who form a local network.
Clare Campus Skillnet Network 1s about 18 months in existence. In that time it has delivered programmes to network members in Clare that,
among other subjects, covered man- agement development, health and safety, manual handling, project de- velopment and softer skills such as presentation programmes and stress management courses.
What happens is that the network of local businesses and enterprises defines its own training needs and sets out a programme of training and education activities.
In this regard, deep appreciation has been expressed of the steering group comprising Barry O’Brien and Kevin Moore, Vitalograph; Corey Downes, Billpost; David Deighan, Shannon Development; Michael Byrne, Acton BV; Alan Flynn, Old Ground Hotel; Carmel Mitchell, Loyalty Build, and Richard Morton, Time to Market.
“Without this group, we would have been floundering without direction,” acknowledged Dr Sean Conlan, edu- cation officer with County Clare Vo- cational Education Committee, who formally presented the certificates. He also thanked Clare Campus Skill- net Network’s co-ordinator, Sinead Mellett and the network’s adminis- trator, Ina Reddan.
Dr Conlan went on to say that at this time of great challenge for all businesses, when unemployment has risen dramatically, the learn- ing agenda comes into more focus for everybody. Those receiving cer- tificates on the occasion, he urged, should see the occasion not as an end of the road but rather the beginning
of a new learning route.
“Then, maybe together, we can learn our way out of this recession and be well prepared to take advan- tage of the upturn when it comes, as it surely will in a year or two or ab Reromean OComcT-n (Gm
That was what Clare Campus Skill- net was all about as it set about putting together a funding application for the coming two years. Priority areas had been identified nationally as transfer- ability of skills and key competencies
for lifelong learning. This was what the organisation would be working on in the coming weeks with a view to getting a budget to continue the work at local level into the future.
Looking at the broader picture, he noted that at the last count there were 123 training networks in the Skill- nets programme overall, showing it had come a long way since its incep- tion in 1999 as a pilot project in en- terprise-led training.
The success of the concept of busi-
nesses, small and large, identifying and delivering in a shared way on their own training needs had ensured that the Skillnet Training Networks Programme had become a key player in training and learning delivery in Ireland.