Education and Training Boards Ireland, which has its headquarters in Pipers Hill in Naas, will host its annual conference next week in the Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney. The conference will run on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 of September and will be attended by almost 200 delegates including the Minister for Education and Skills who will address the conference on Thursday. The General Secretary for the Education and Training Board is Michael Moriarty who is based in Naas.
All of the education and training boards took over the training that use to be delivered by FAS and they are now pushing entrepreneur training and teaching in schools. A new programme called EDISON - Entrepreneurial Education Programme will be launched officially next week at the conference by the Minister for Skills and Education, Richard Bruton.
There are an estimated 7,000 ICT jobs to be filled but there are currently not enough people seeking work that have the skills to match these jobs.
Day one of the conference features a panel discussion on equity in education: real or imagined? Interventions to make a difference. The panel will include contributions from renowned journalist John Walshe, Dr Brian Fleming, author of recent publication Irish Education 1922-2007: Cherishing All the Children?, Dr Patsy Daly, Head of the Department of Special Education at Mary Immaculate College, Michael Barron, Executive Director of Equate, and Catriona O’Brien, Principal Officer with the Department of Education and Skills.
Day two at the the Conference will explore issues around the very topical subject of mental health and well-being in our schools with contributions from Eamon Gaffney, member of the board of Headstrong/Jigsaw, Ireland’s National Centre for Youth Mental Health, and Seanie McGrath, retired Munster senior hurler and media analyst and pundit. Professor Niall Moyna, professor of clinical exercise physiology and Head of the School of Health and Human Performance at DCU, will discuss competences for 21st Century living, Ann O’Dwyer, Education Officer with Kerry ETB, will look at a physical education project in Kerry ETB, Scoil Gníomhach, and Trevor Sweetman, Youth Officer with Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim ETB, will investigate Youth Work, what it is and what is its impact.
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