STUDENTS of a supervisory management programme featured prominently in the annual award of certificates in Ennis Adult and Community Education Centre.
The programme was at Level 6 of the Further Education & Training Awards Council of Ireland (FETAC), meaning that the Back to Education Initiative (BTEI) delivered at the Clonroad Business Park centre was given the green light to run a third-level course for the first time.
The BTEI is one of several programmes delivered across the county by Clare Adult and Community Education Service run by the county vocational education committee.
Mike Ryan, county BTEI co-ordinator, explained how it was possible to run the new course after FETAC approved the tutorial team recruited for it, along with the proposed course content developed by his staff.
Also presented on the occasion were certificates for courses conducted at the centre by Clare Adult Basic Education Service (CABES), another wing of the overall county service.
The head of the county service, Aobhán Haverty, pointed to the fact that they now had in excess of 4,300 learners across Clare, which was a fantastic achievement. She congratulated the BTEI county co-ordinator and team along with the co-ordinators and tutors of CABES on accomplishing a fantastic job.
But firstly, it was to the credit of the students and their families, she added, that they had returned to education and taken up the remarkable range of courses now offered at the Ennis centre.
Mr Ryan spoke of the considerable increase in adult education uptake generally across the county in recent years, particularly following the downturn in the economic situation. He added that the BTEI was a particularly flexible channel for returning to learning.
Moira Greene, a literacy organiser with the adult education service, said that sometimes several obstacles could come in the way of returning to education but dedication and effort always won in the end. That was very evident in the successes being recognised and celebrated on the occasion.
The CABES courses covered reading, writing, listening and speaking for a component certificate, computer skills, quantitative problem solving, crafts, culinary operations, digital media and English as a second language.
As well as supervisory management, the BTEI courses included a wide diversity of subjects such as sports and recreation, healthcare, childcare, tourism, business studies, cookery, horticulture and information and communications technology.