BellTIME
Dunboyne
College to
go to 1000
students!
In December of 2018
Dunboyne College received
the ideal Christmas present
with confirmation from
LMETB, Solas, and the
Department of Education
that the college will have
the teaching resources to
reach 1000 students from
next year. This coupled with the
fact that work on identifying a new
site for the development of the
new campus is well advanced
means that the only college of
further education in county Meath
can develop even more new
programmes to add to its existing
44 courses, as well as developing
new traineeships, apprenticeships
and HND qualifications into the
future. The college serves Meath,
west Dublin and north Kildare but
students are currently coming
from other parts of Leinster as
well. Last year we had over 2100
applicants for 800 places so the
new allocation for additional
students is most welcome.
The progression opportunities to
third level from Dunboyne College
are significant and this past
summer 241 of our graduates
received honours degree Level 8
offers and 208 received Level 7
ordinary degree offers. Many
mature students also received
early offers and some has already
taken up offers in the UK for
nursing, law or sports. This year
our students are in nearly every
third level college in the country
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from Dublin to Dundalk, Athlone to
Galway, Waterford to Sligo. As
usual some of our local universities
had the bulk of the offer especially
Maynooth University five miles
away with 85 offers including 49
for Arts as well as multiple offers
for Social Science, Science and
Business and Law. There were also
numerous offers to other
universites including 22 to DCU, 14
to UCD, 8 to Trinity College, 8 to
NCI, and 68 to DIT.. It was similar
story for our local I.T. college in
Blanchardstown where there were
126 offers in Business, Creative
Media, Sports Management and
Coaching, or Early Childhood Care
and Education. Other IT colleges
around the country now have
Dunboyne College including 25
offers to Dundalk I.T., 17 to
Athlone I.T., 17 to Tallaght I.T., 16
between I.T. Sligo and Galway
Mayo IT, and 9 to I.T. Carlow. There
are also students in Waterford,
Letterkenny, Tralee and Thurles.
Four of our students enrolled in
University College Galway this
year and 2 in University College
Cork for courses ranging from Arts
to Midwifery.
Dunboyne College of
Further Education has now
grown to over 820 students
doing QQI level 5 and 6
courses at our campus in
Dunboyne Business Park
and is the only dedicated
PLC further education
college in County Meath
and the surrounding areas.
Well over 90% of the students
who have achieved a full QQI level
5 award with Dunboyne College in
recent years received third level
offers or have accessed the career
of their choice. Those who choose
not to go the third level proceed
directly to employment as the skills
achieved at QQI level 5 and 6 are
much sought after by industries in
this region in areas like childcare,
healthcare, cookery, beauty,
haircare, business, tourism, animal
care, etc. The feedback on the
courses from students has been
excellent in terms of the new skills
and confidence they felt they
received to go on to future learning
and to access job opportunities.
96% of students rate the college as
either excellent or very good in a
recent student survey.
pursuing the correct course
choice. Students often do far
better at further education level as
they are now studying in an area
of their passion and aptitude like
nursing, sports, childcare, science
or cookery rather than in the
Leaving cert where Irish English
Math’s etc. were compulsory. As
students also learn referencing,
research and self-directed learning
they tend to stay the full third level
course afterwards, unlike many
who go straight from leaving cert
who are often not very sure of
their options. Dropout rates for
students who do a level 5 QQI
course are less than 3% on
progression compared to 10% at
university level up to 20% on some
courses for leaving cert entrants to
IT colleges. Dunboyne courses are
increasing in popularity with this
year over 2100 students applying
for 800 places for 2018 entry. 2017 Dunboyne College had
introduced Applied Psychology,
Sports Injury Prevention and Pre
University Arts English (Liberal
Arts) to add to the Equine
Business, Airline Studies,
Hairdressing, Pharmacy Assistant,
Beauty Therapy, Office
Administration, Retail Studies,
Computer Systems and Networks, ,
and Creative Media introduced in
the last two years. . Dunboyne
College since its inception in 2003
Sports Science, and Sports
has run courses in Nursing, Social
Management.
Studies, Art, Pre University
This year the college introduces
Nutrition Health and Wellbeing,
Sports and Food Science, Pre-
University Business Law, Pre
Primary and Post-Primary
Teaching, Online Marketing,
Graphic Design, Media Film and
Production as well as new level 6
offerings in tourism, equine, animal
science, business and sports. In Business and Pre University Arts
programmes which have been
added to over the years by
students studying Childcare/
Special Needs Assistant, Health
Service Skills, Pre University
Science, Food Science,
Professional Cookery, Animal Care,
Multimedia, Computer Information
Systems, Sound Engineering,
There is an on line enrolment on-
going with interviews on the 15th
March, 1st May and the 29th of May.
Late interviews are in June and
September. In fact late applications
will be taken until late September
depending on the availability on the
courses. School leavers, mature
students, lifelong learners and
those who want further
opportunities to progress in their
jobs will all benefit from these QQI
programmes in nearby Dunboyne.
It should never be thought about as
an extra year, but rather as a
wonderful opportunity to explore
what you really want to do, to make
the right choice, and have a
passport to make sure that choice
is possible.
One year QQI level 5 Programmes
like the majority run in Dunboyne
are an ideal way to pursue a course
in an area of interest and access to
third level option. By having a day a
week in a work experience setting,
it allows students to see if they are
pursuing the correct option before
embarking on a four year degree
course or entering a career. The
flexible options in Dunboyne allow
students to sample various modules
in September to make sure they are
www.dunboynecollege.ie
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