This article is from page 29 of the 2007-11-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
THERE were celebrations in Lis- doonvarna recently as 43 hard- working students received their cer- tificates for the completion of their a) AA Oa Ny s-tKehy
Clare TD Tony Killeen was on hand to present the awards at Mary Immaculate Secondary School. The school offers courses in business studies, childcare and community and health services, with a total of 15 modules on the go within these courses at any one time.
Night classes began in Mary Immaculate Secondary School back in 1995. The interest in these classes
proved so strong that 20 students had enrolled in full post-Leaving Cert courses in the school by September wR
“This is the first year that we will be giving out the full Community and Health Care certs so it’s particularly exciting. The course only started two years ago So this is the first group to pick up full certificates,” said Treasa Conneely of Mary Immaculate.
“This year we had 78 _ students enrolled, which is a fabulous number. It’s been a great 10 years, it would have been very unique back in 1997 to have adults coming into the school.
“The students are drawn from all walks of life, from the ages of 20
years and upwards. They come from all over the Burren area, from New Quay down as far as Corofin, and we even have a few people who travel up from Ennis.”
The school carried out a survey in 2004 on the challenges faced by adult females wishing to return to the education system.
“The survey showed that 85 per cent said that a lack of confidence hindered them from returning to education,’ added Ms Conneely.
“More than 95 per cent said lack of child minding facilities and 76 per cent said that they had lost all contact with the labour market because the technology had changed so much.
“This helped us to choose different modules that would suit the needs of these people.”
More than half of all those who complete courses in Lisdoonvarna go on to further education, with many going to receive university degrees.
“We have one person who went on to become a lecturer in Limerick and another who has just qualified as a teacher and is now working as a teacher in Athenry. So it’s going well,” said Ms Conneely.
“We get a lot of our students from word of mouth so people are giving us a good reference.”
For more information, contact the school at 065-7074266.