The Time is Now – Time for Action.
This article is for the members in Ireland only as I am not familiar with the options available in any other country. I do know that the UK, has a similar initiative in place, but with Brexit looming, I’m not sure what will happen if they exit the EU. Check your local government website to see if your country has some of these facilities, certainly within the EU, there will be many opportunities to avail of the initiatives.
The time has never been better to take advantage of the governments’ initiatives to get people back to education. You can either start a new degree in your chosen career or upskill with new technology.
Now, I know that many of you are screaming “Marty, you talking rubbish, there is no such thing as a free education”, but there is, and Ireland is paving the way with free education available to you if you meet some basic criteria. My last degree cost me €0, everything was taken care of by the government initiative to upskill our workforce.
If you live in Ireland, then you can take advantage of the governments’ initiatives to upskill our workforce. Over the past number of years, Ireland has been pushing out the boundaries to allow everyone to get the education they deserve, and in most cases, it is free for the mature student, unemployed, self-employed, employed and homemakers. Let’s have a look at each sector and see how you can benefit from the initiatives.
There are many courses available to you to advance your skills and your career in learning & development and in many digital disciplines such as “Creative Digital Media Level7 or Leve 8”. This particular course will take you through everything you need to know to be creative and design, develop, build and roll out a multitude of digital skills that are applicable to the learning and development manager or the instructional designer in today’s fast-paced market.
Mature Student (23 years or older):
As a mature student, you can apply for a college course (level 5, 6, 7 or 8). This gives you access to almost any course you may want to take on your career path. This is means tested, but generally as a mature student and unemployed you stand a 95% chance of getting the course free. All Irish colleges hold 10% of the placements for mature students, so again you have a pretty good chance of getting the course you want.
Unemployed person:
As an unemployed person, you can access the same resources as the mature student, but you can also access the “Back to Education Allowance”. This (BTEA) means that while you are studying fulltime in a college on an approved course you will receive a weekly payment from the government, for a single person this works out at €200 per week, plus you will be entitled to free medical care and other benefits.
Self-employed Person:
For the self-employed person, you can return to college on a part-time basis and get a degree or diploma in a range of courses that will enable you to upskill or change careers. The terms for this facility are that there are many completely free courses, along with many other courses where the employee only has to pay 10% of the tuition fees. This is a great way to upskill and keep your current job.
Employed Person:
For the employed person, you can return to college on a part-time basis and get a degree or diploma in a range of courses that will enable you to upskill or change careers. The terms for this facility are that there are many completely free courses, along with many other courses where the employee only has to pay 10% of the tuition fees. This is a great way to upskill and keep your current job.
Homemaker (Wife, Husband, Partner):
This is a new addition to the initiatives and only immerged a few months ago. If you are a stay at home housemaker, then you can now return to college free of charge. This is one of the best initiatives, as it not dependent on your partner’s income, it is open to all homemakers. This gives you the opportunity to get the education you put on hold.
Useful Links for further Information:
Springboard
https://springboardcourses.ie/
Solas
http://www.solas.ie/Pages/HomePage.aspx
Department of Social& Family Protection
https://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/353_Back-to-Education-Allowance.aspx
Skillnet
Lieve your 100% about the perception of “FREE” and that is one of the reasons that so many places in colleges are not taken up as people feel that because it is free they won’t get the same education as the person paying, when I’n fact they both get the same.
Indeed. Education in Belgium is pretty low cost, even for college, when compared with other countries. One of the weird consequences is that students don’t care about the years they spent to get their degree, since it is so low cost. Humans can have very weird reasoning.
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