Westmeath Community Development

The  Training For Employment course finished recently with all participants, both full-time and part-time, achieving excellent results in the area of Business Studies, Childcare and Social Studies.  The programme has always offered  full accreditation at FETAC level 3 and this year for the first time the project has expanded to offer a full FETAC level 5 certificate also.  Courses can be taken on a full time or part time basis. The full time day programme runs over one year while the part time programme mainly in Childcare runs over two years. 

Training For Employment is sponsored by Westmeath Community Development and funded by FAS, Dept. Of Social and Family Affairs, Westmeath Vocational Education Committee and LDSIP.  The next course will begin in September and will offer training to both men and women who are unemployed.  The programme offers  certification at level 3 in General Studies and level 5 in  Social Studies, Business and Childcare. It also offers participants the opportunity to take part in a variety of sports and recreational activities and also training in job seeking skills and personal development.  The programme runs in the centre in 7 O’Connell Street for four days a week and in Athlone Institute of Technology for one day per week. 

This year’s participants did exceptionally well, all achieving a major FETAC award with a high level of distinctions in the various modules completed.   A small number of participants have managed to secure employment in the past few weeks, some have applied for places in Athlone Institute of Technology for September and others are in the process of seeking employment or further education and training.