By Rose Rushe
Photo: Alan Place
A PACKED suite at Limerick Strand Hotel reflected the significance of Limerick College of Further Education’s (LCFE) launch of its Strategic Plan 2014-2018 for Further Education and Training (FET) in the context of Limerick’s urban landscape and national influence in the sector.
Led by college director Pat Maunsell, the launch welcomed Minister for Housing and Planning Jan O’Sullivan as guest speaker along with chief executive of Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB) Sean Burke.
Attending were stakeholders, board CEO Paul Patton, Eoghan Prendergast of Limerick Marketing Company, college staff, Strategy steering committee members, and incoming chief executive of the Limerick and Clare board, George O’Callaghan.
Some 15 months work in a sea of change in the sector, and recession, informed the creation of four pillars (Responsive Programmes, Outstanding Teaching and Learning, Modern Campus Environment, and Dynamic Partnerships). Mr Maunsell described these as “a road map, a sort of sat nav. to reference now as we go forward in education” for LCFE’s six schools at Mulgrave Street.
“This is the only [such] plan post the development of SOLAS in the country, in a process as defining as the product at the end,” the college director stated. “We engaged with partners and stakeholders, with learners and staff”.
He paid warm tribute to the steering committee that facilitated so much and explained that SOLAS, established in 2013 in education bills driven by Minister Ruari Quinn [and the formation of the 16 Education and Training Boards], now oversees the funding, planning and co-ordination of further education nationwide.
Mr Maunsell went on to underline key concepts according to plan 2014-18. He gave particular weight to the idea of courses being progression to further education or to get a job, a reality that the college negotiates daily: “Many of the people that we deal with don’t have a lot”.
LCFE is to be recognised as “outstanding in its field”; “to look for next practices as well as best practices”; to overcome barriers such as “capitation, operational structure and funding”; to exercise values integral to the four pillars, giving leadership: “That is what this service is about”.
Addressing relevance to the world of work and serving student need with vital tools for progression, Minister Jan O’Sullivan complimented LCFE on its record of “offering opportunities to people that provided an excellence in education”. “Building on very solid foundation,” the Minister for Planning said she had “no doubt that LCGE will be the flagship college of which Pat Maunsell spoke”.
Sean Burke, head of LCETB under whose auspices LCFE sits, spoke of the “significant achievement of the college as one of the largest for Further Education in the country and certainly, region”. He placed LCFE in the context of the changed regulatory environment and the “imminent launch of the national FET strategy”.
He described the launch of Strategic Plan 2014-2018 Limerick College of Further Education as “an opportunity to fit seamlessly into local, regional and national perspectives”. Engaging the values iterated, “what people will have in front of them is a seamless tapestry of Further Education and Training and opportunities that will take them forward”.
