Friday, 18.05.2007
What Your VEC Can Do For You

Ireland’s Vocational Education Committees (VECs) were established in the 1930s to provide educational opportunities for younger people, particularly early school-leavers. However, their remit has broadened considerably in more recent times. Today, the country’s 33 VECs organise second-level, adult, community and second-chance education, Post Leaving Cert (PLC) programmes, prisoner education, traveller education and a variety of EU-funded training programmes. These courses are offered at a variety of locations, but particularly in local schools and PLC colleges.

Maintaining course relevance is of particular importance to the VECs. In the area of evening classes, for example, they strive to meet the changing needs of business and industry, as well as keeping up with shifting trends in leisure interests. The popularity of VEC courses is also growing – every year, over 26,000 adults take part-time classes in Dublin city alone.

The sheer breadth of VEC course types means that they literally offer something for everyone. You could, for example, take a taster course in computing and then go on to attend a full-time PLC course in a similar area that leads to a recognised qualification. The needs of needs of the socially and economically deprived sections of society are also a VEC priority. VTOS – the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme – is perhaps its most well known.

VTOS gives unemployed adults the opportunity to return to full time education without losing their benefits and also get certification in subjects at the Junior Certificate, Leaving Certificate, City and Guilds, FETAC and other levels. Those who are unable to commit to a full-time programme can avail of the Back to Education Initiative (BTEI), which provides part-time further education programmes for adults. The aim is to provide an opportunity to combine a return to learning with family, work and other responsibilities and priority is give to those with less than an upper second-level education.

Other VEC programmes include the Drugs Court Initiative, a supervised treatment programme to help drug dependent offenders address their addiction and offending behaviour, and Youthreach, a two-year training course for 15- to 18-year-olds, who have left regular education and who are unemployed.

VEC courses generally offer the student great value for money (in some cases they are free!), good quality tuition and a huge choice of subjects. If you are intrigued, then why not search for your perfect programme with the Nightcourses.com search engine? You can also find out more about the work of the VECs from the co-ordinating body for all the VECs around Ireland, the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA).

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