Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig and Happy Easter to all employees of Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board.
In this Spring edition of the magazine I am honoured to acknowledge the historical occasion of the centenary celebration of the 1916 Rising. There has been a special focus on The Rising in our curriculum in schools and centres this year. There have been many celebrations, reflections and creative recordings of The Rising by students and staff. I wish to thank all involved for their efforts in acknowledging this most significant time in our history.
It is appropriate that the theme of this edition of the magazine is innovation, this is one of the core named values of KWETB. In all my service in education I have never witnessed so much energy, innovation, new and improved ways of working in the organisation. This is throughout all strands of our service from community national schools, post primary, adult and community education, training and our central administration/management services. I would encourage all principals/managers in KWETB to have ‘innovation’ as a standard agenda item for all staff meetings and to promote and record the achievements of staff.
There is fantastic work being done. Comhghairdeas libh go léir.
In education and training there has rarely been a more exciting if somewhat challenging time for KWETB. In further education and training (FET) the focus for the last number of months has been on our course and strategic planning and funding submissions to SOLAS. We have finalised our statements of strategy for FET 2016 and 2017. Our budget in Further Education and Training is 28 million euro per annum and it is no mean feat to ensure that every cent is spent in delivering an excellent service to our learners. We must ensure that we are responding effectively to community and national education, training and employment activation plans.
The key elements of our FET Strategic Plan for 2016/2017 are:-
* Expansion and enhancement of the property portfolio to ensure appropriate facilities to deliver on our enhanced brief of training and to upgrade our Further Education Facilities.
* Expansion of the range of FET courses to include apprenticeships, a focus on courses at Level 5 and 6 for direct employment and on practical skills traineeships.
* Further Development of a strong FET service in West Wicklow/East Kildare and South Wicklow/Kildare.
* Review and continuous development of FET organisation structures, processes and procedures to support delivery of FET strategy.
I wish to convey my thanks to all those in FET who have worked hard on the planning submission and who are charged with the delivery of the above objectives.
Message from the Chief Executive