Wicklow Trade Union Centre forced to close after 25 years
WICKLOW Trade Union Centre in Bray is closing its doors after serving the community since 1993.
Manager Patricia Shortt said that the Board of Management made the difficult decision because they can no longer afford to remain open.
She asked former clients to come in before the last day – Friday, April 6 – to collect outstanding certificates or provide email contact details to have CVs or other documents sent on.
‘It became financially un-viable for us to continue,’ said Patricia. Rent would be the highest expense incurred by the centre.
Patricia herself has been there for the past 17 years and is distraught.
‘It’s more disappointing because there’s nothing I can do about it. I tried all last year. There’s just no way I can get customers in and get bums on seats for the training courses. There are so many free courses out there, we can’t compete with that. We have overheads to pay, such as rent.
‘It was a hard decision to make but, in the end, we don’t want to be seen as trading recklessly. It’s an awful shame because we ran a good training centre.
‘Over the years a lot of people have benefited from coming here to train,’ she said.
‘ They found that our approach to training was person-centred and we progressed a vast number of people with learning difficulties. We got them through ECDL and many other things. It was our approach to training people, including those with learning difficulties, that made us successful as a training organisation.’
She said that the information section handled many cases and got people out of trouble. ‘ That will be a great loss to Bray when it goes,’ she said.
The centre was established as a response by the Trade Union movement to the problem of unemployment in the early-1990s, at that time running at over 4,500 in the Bray area alone. The centre adopted a policy that its service would expand to all the unemployed and disadvantaged, whether coming from a trade union background or not.
‘It’s a very sad day and I regret that it had to happen. But there was no way around it. We’ve done everything we possibly could.’
Patricia said that centres in Galway, Limerick and Dundalk have suffered the same fate.
Services provided throughout the years have included information on entitlements, secretarial and CV services, training, guidance and much more and was available to people in the entire County as well as Shankill. ‘ The centre always had a good feel about it,’ said Patricia.
Patricia said that staff employed currently on CE schemes will be placed elsewhere in appropriate positions.
“It was a hard decision to make but, in the end, we don’t want to be seen as trading recklessly. It’s an awful shame because we ran a good training centre”