August 2021 Newsletter

Find out what's happening across Limerick in community education

 

Welcome to the LCEN's first newsletter showcasing community education across Limerick. 

The Limerick Life Long Learning festival was a great success this year, check out some of the highlights below

 
Life Long Learning Facebook

 

The 11th Limerick Lifelong Learning Festival Monday 24th to Sunday 31st  May; with the theme ‘New Futures, New Adventures in Learning’. There were over online 100 events held throughout the week; for what was our second virtual festival.  There certainly was something for everyone to choose from; with a diversity of activities that includes dance, art, health and science, business and developing career options. Our second virtual festival again provided a timely opportunity celebrate the resilience of our local communities.

 

 The flagship event for the festival this year was the ‘Live Interviews and Panel Discussion’ Webinar event with the Learning Ambassadors on the first day of the festival. This is a wonderful grassroots initiative, and the event was led by the learners themselves.

 

Key Feedback from Event Organisers and Participants and Recommendations included:

 

  • Include a hybrid of both online and in-person events in future festivals.
  • Excellent Digital Marketing campaign on Social Media; keep this up.
  • Strong desire to get back to optimal in-person events, for networking and interactivity.
  • Continue to ensure no ‘competing’ events; not to over fill the festival week and careful scheduling.
  • Encourage and support more interactive online events, e.g. The key event questions could be forwarded to attendees in advance, so that they can be addressed together during the session. Include even more opportunities for hands-on type learning - skills, experiences etc. More use of ‘Break-out’ rooms etc. 
  • Event Organisers workshops are great as key training and networking supports
  • Continue to support those who may have difficulty accessing platforms (e.g., learners in rural areas, those with literacy difficulties) 

 

Thank you to all of those involved for their commitment and hard work in the planning and running of the festival and hosting events; thus helping to make the festival a great success again this year.  The wide engagement in the festival is a mark of the commitment to promoting learning in all its forms and the interest in lifelong learning across all groups.

Home | Learning Limerick

Learning Limerick is a partnership that is collaborating to advance Limerick's progress as a Learning Region. Membership includes Local Government, Higher Education, Further Education and Training, Local Development, Community Education, Culture and Arts, Youth Work, Social Welfare, Childcare, Migrant Integration, Mental Health Services and Limerick Chamber Skillnet.

Launch of Limericks Lifelong Learning Festival 2021

Ambassador Event

Self-Portrait exhibition

As part of the festival the LCEN in collaboration with the LCETB brought together learners from all across the city and put on a virtual gallery exhibition which can be seen with the link below:

Self-Portrait | lcen

What is the self-portrait project? This is Citywide project for Community Education leaners which will be brought together as a public exhibition/gallery of images during the Lifelong Learning Festival in May 2021. The purpose of the project is to keep learners connected with Community Education and with each other during Covid-19 by getting involved in a citywide project.

LCETB Information, Recruitment and Guidance Support Service 

 

This is a free, confidential, impartial and professional service, that offers guidance counselling, information and advice about education, training and career pathways.

 

1. Supports for those considering education and training options

If you meet people looking to make a change, are a bit lost and don’t know where to start, for example...

 

 “I want to do something so that I can get a job.

”“I’d love to go back to education, but I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m not from Ireland and I don’t know what my options are. “

“I want to do something for myself.”

 

You can refer them to our service for one-to-one information and guidance counselling support.

New for Autumn 2021 – Animated video explaining our service on www.learningandskills.ie/guidance.

 

2. Supports for learners on community-based programmes this autumn

 

1-to-1 Guidance Counselling and group sessions (face-to-face and online)

Service flyer, KLEAR Newsletter, Education & Jobs Bulletin, Facebook page, e-mails with relevant information/updates.

 

New for Autumn 2021 – A new online education and careers resources library on MS Teams for learners.

 

For more information or to support someone to make an appointment:

Freephone 1800 707077 

E-mail: coursechoices@lcetb.ie 

Request a guidance appointment (face-to-face, phone or online): www.learningandskills.ie/guidance 

Follow us on www.facebook.com/FETinformationRecruitmentGuidance

 

 Community-Based Guidance Counselling Team:

North City - catherine.carroll@lcetb.ie  Tel. 087 9812020

South City - lorraine.odonoghue@lcetb.ie  Tel. 087 9377277

City Centre - emma.maher@lcetb.ie  Tel. 087 9812056

LCETB Guidance facebook
Guidance | Learning and Skills

We offer a FREE information, advice and guidance service for people who are considering Further Education and Training up to Level 6 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ). Our professional and experienced team of Information Officers and Guidance Counsellors are part of the Information, Recruitment and Guidance Support Service.

The Limerick Womens Network are launching a new programme called "STEPS" strarting in Septemember 2021

We at St Mary’s are over the moon in our return to in-person classes for the upcoming semester. It will be a great pleasure to see our new and returning students walk through our doors again.

 

We know that the last year has been tough on everyone and want to use our platform in order to better serve our students. The lack of access to community services has been an extra burden on a lot of students, especially for those who have been isolated. So in acknowledgment of this we have integrated a whole new slate of classes which focus on mental health and well-being.

 

With our Mindfulness and Positive Living, Tai Chi, Health and Beauty and Pilates classes, we hope to adapt to what our community needs in the current climate. On top of this, an unexpected reveal from the lockdown was that extra help is needed for students who may not be tech savvy. To combat this we have hired a new IT specialist in order to offer extra support to our students as well as help our staff along the way too! 

 

Best wishes from all at St Mary's Adult Education Centre. here. Edit to add dynamic values like name, email and more.

Dealing with restrictions caused by  COVID and lockdown, we have encountered several challenges to running Community education classes but it also has presented new opportunities for people who had previously not used or had little knowledge of using the internet to learn new skills by logging on with support to online courses. Limerick City CDP ran a number of accredited and non-accredited classes online throughout the lockdown to enable learners to continue engaging…

 

The students have successfully completed QQI modules in Desktop publishing, Customer Service, Internet Skills, Digital media and Reception skills. Learners have also been enthusiastically engaging in online classes such as Knitting.  We also started level 3 in Gardening, and with one module completed, a second module is due to start in September, as well as L1 to 5  in IT, office administration and  culinary operations.

 

Going forward Limerick City CDP are actively planning and recruiting for our classes starting in September. We are planning a wide variety of courses as outlined above, as well as   Community Development L5, Knitting and vlogging aimed at engaging younger learners.  

The Southill family resource centre will be offering the elderly residents a drop in service at the Men’s shed. From Monday 16th of August at 2 pm to 4 pm for a cuppa and chat, looking forward to seeing old and new members.

This is located at the old school yard opposite the Parish church.

The Southill FRC Will remain open all throughout the summer holidays for any Enquiries call    061 440250

Are you a community-based organisation supporting educationally disadvantaged learners to access and participate in education? Funding applications for the ‘Mitigating Against Educational Disadvantage Fund’ need to be returned by Friday, 24th September. This fund is open to all community groups that offer Further Education and Training. For more information, email zarena.collopy@lcetb.ie

Register for AONTAS’ MAEDF Workshop Webinar


During the first iteration of the MAEDF in 2020, AONTAS hosted a MAEDF Workshop Webinar. We invite members to attend a similar webinar on Wednesday, 18th August 2021 from 2pm – 3pm.
Click here to register.

 

Calling all Community Education providers – apply to the Mitigating against Educational Disadvantage Fund 2021 through your local Education and Training Board (ETB). #MAEDF

Visit https://www.solas.ie/mitigating-against-educational.../ and contact your local ETB for more information and to access the application form.

#CommunityEducation

The Mitigating Against Educational Disadvantage Fund (MAEDF) aims to provide funding to support educationally disadvantaged learners in accessing and participating in community education. The fund was launched by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD, and is administered by SOLAS, the further education and training authority, and the 16 local Education and Training Boards.

 

 Our social media links are here:

Link to Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AONTASAdultlearning/

Link to twitter: https://twitter.com/aontas

Link to Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aontasireland/

Link to LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aontas-the-national-adult-learning-organisation?originalSubdomain=ie

Link to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzG7cIUXkBH5Pinl_3q8zbA 

 

If you would like something added to our next newsletter, please contact         Patrick Fitzgerald at: patrick@lcen.ie

c/o 267 O'Malley Park Southill, Limerick
089 4696654

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