North Clare excelling at adult education

Adult education is growing in popularity countywide and North Clare is no exception. Family-orientated courses, a marked increase in the number of male participants and a greater range of programmes are some of the changes that have taken place to the field in recent years.

The fourth annual nationwide Adult Learners’ Festival is taking place next week and North Clare will play a significant part in it. The festival aims to celebrate adult learning and the achievements of adult learners.
“We want to highlight the initiative in the North Clare community in contacting us and organising learning to suit themselves over the past year. This is a community that showed particular initiative in this regard. They contacted us and knew what they wanted,” says Ann Knox, community education facilitator with Clare VEC Adult and Community Education Service.
Family is at the heart of adult education in North Clare and across the county, Ann believes and this is reflected in the choice of programmes available, as well as the times they take place.
“We would see the family as the key to learning. If children start learning early enough they will be learning for life. By focusing on the parents we feel we will have a multiplier effect,” she explains.
The Clare Family Learning Project, part of the Clare Adult Basic Education Service (CABES), aims to help parents support their children’s learning in early years, primary school and in the move to second level.
Katie Lewis from CABES outlines, “In North Clare we offer Fun Math dads and kids classes to take the mystery out of maths and make numbers and math more approachable and the games, card tricks and number magic in this course certainly helps. We also have Cooking on a Budget, which is designed to help a parent or a carer of young children to plan and cook meals and snacks and not to cost the earth. Also, in family learning we run classes for people who want to support their child in the Irish education system if English is not their first language.”
Increasing interest in both self-sufficiency and in the quality of food is reflected in other family-friendly courses being provided in the North Clare area.
Horticulture and cookery are proving very popular with learners, which in turn has led to adult education providers setting up tunnels, identifying locations for cookery classes in the community and supporting the idea of community gardens.
The enthusiasm for growing, cooking and crafts has infected both young and old. The Resource Centre in Miltown Malbay is a typical example of what is happening in a number of locations across the county. The community kitchen there is now in use for a number of daytime cookery courses, including Cooking on a Budget and Cooking for a Family for parents. These courses are being run by Clare Family Learning Project, which organises a large selection of programmes around the county for parents.
Clare Family Learning supports parents’ and children’s learning, recognising that parents are their children’s first and most important teacher and that the home or the local community are valuable learning places.
The resource centre has also recently installed a tunnel in its back garden and 24 local people, men and women from their early 20s to late 50s, are studying horticulture on Wednesday mornings and will continue to do so until June and into the autumn. Follow-on classes on enterprise and business skills will be provided to support learners to get involved in a small enterprise or to join the local farmers’ markets.
Local second-level schools are also providing night classes in cookery, including one funded by the Equality Measures for Women in Ennistymon Vocational School. The 12-strong group is following a FETAC-certified food and cookery programme until the end of March.
According to Gerry McDonagh, rural development officer with Clare Local Development Company, the food and cookery module provides the participants with an opportunity to return to learning in their own locality.
“The course provides a local social outlet for rural women to share learning with their friends and also allows them to progress at a pace they are comfortable with,” he says.
With Ennistymon set for a new farmers’ market in the coming months, Gerry believes that the food and cookery module is also particularly timely “as it will provide an opportunity for the participants to showcase their skills”.
During the Adult Learner Festival, on Wednesday, February 24, between 2pm and 4pm, Ennistymon Library and Clare VEC Adult Education Service are running an event entitled A Taste of Learning, where the public can taste some of the cookery class’ baking and talk to adult education providers.
Clare VEC alone has more than 4,000 adult learners annually and, according to adult education providers in North Clare, the downturn in the economy has coincided with a noticeable increase in the numbers of men pursuing courses.
In the past year, this has become particularly clear across the county as the number of men participating in courses organised by County Clare VEC’s Back to Education Initiative (BTEI) soared. The number of males taking courses with the BTEI has increased from 18% of the student population in 2008 to 35% in 2009.
A highly innovative programme targeting men is operating out of Liscannor National School. Each week, over 30 men attend FETAC-certified computer classes at the school.
The course was organised through partnership with the Irish Farmers’ Association, the principal of the local national school, the development officer for North Clare from the Clare Local Development Company, Mr McDonagh and the BTEI.
An initial class of 18 people commenced in October and such was the demand that a second class of 18 people commenced two weeks later. While the classes are not exclusively for men, over 90% of those registered are males.
Ms Knox claims the IFA has been pivotal in attracting men to take part in the courses being run.
“We had a meeting with the IFA local representative and some of IFA members. This proved hugely influential. As well as that, the male interest might be to do with the recession. A lot of men would have gone straight from school to work in construction and some may not have completed their Leaving Cert. There are opportunities now for these men to upskill and to go to college. The computer courses are also very useful in upskilling, especially because information technology has become relevant in so many areas,” she points out. Another stand-out feature of people in North Clare is the “great willingness in the schools to help the community and that is key to this success”.
Workplace Basic Education (WBE) is another important programme for CABES. This allows anyone in full or part-time employment to join in classes that will help support their work and improve their skills, covering topics like workplace technology, retail and customer care skills, healthcare skills, maths and communications.
A further course offered by the Ennistymon branch of CABES is the Intensive Tuition in Adult Basic Education (ITABE), consisting of six hours of classes per week in computers, crafts and improving reading, writing and numeracy skills. It also offers e-learning classes, among other topics.
As well as the numerous organisations offering programmes, further educational support is available from libraries.
“In the early days, when adult education was unheard of, local libraries were the de facto resource centres for those adults in the community who wished to broaden their horizons and learn more about the world around them. In the days before the Internet, the library’s bookshelves were the search engines of rural Ireland,” recalled Frances O’Gorman from Clare Library.
“The library service in North Clare is at the forefront in providing valuable resources to all sectors of the community, especially to those adults who are seeking to improve their lives and the lives of their families by taking on the challenge of learning and further education,” she continues.
“A serious downturn in the economy, such as we are currently experiencing, has historically been a boon time for public libraries as people return to more economic ways of accessing information, education, entertainment and communication. Libraries are important as centres for job seekers and those returning to education. They provide diverse resources, including free Internet access, self-help books and information on community assistance services,” Frances concludes.
Among the events scheduled to take place in Clare during the National Adult Learners’ Festival from February 22 to February 26 will be film screenings, a drop-in horticulture class at the allotments in Spellissy’s Lane, Ennis, a green growing workshop in Liscannor, a taste of learning, meet and sample in Ennistymon Library, a tour of Ennis courthouse, exhibitions on literacy through the ages and a public speaking workshop.
Anyone with an interest in lifelong learning is invited to the next meeting of North Clare Learning Network in the CABES room of the Ennistymon Library. The meeting is scheduled for 1.30pm on Friday, March 12, and many of the adult education providers will meet to share expertise and to plan for summer term activity in the area. Guests are welcome as observers or to contribute.
Further information on all courses is available from www.ClareLearningNetwork.org. A comprehensive list of activities taking place locally is available from the National Adult Learners’ Festival at www.adultlearnersfestival.com. More information is also accessible by contacting Clare VEC Adult and Community Education Service on 065 6824819.