Daniel shares his experience of adult education in new booklet
GOREY’S Daniel Kenny has told his story of adult education in a new booklet by AONTAS which celebrates the impact of young adult learners sharing their experiences of the National FET Learner Forum.
Available online at www.aontas.com, the booklet has been launched to coincide with nationwide events taking place online to encourage people to enter adult education.
In his story, Mr Kenny explained that taking part in further education has changed him after he first started a course at Gorey Youth Needs.
‘School wasn’t for me but since I’ve been in the ETB, I’ve just excelled,’ he said. ‘When I did a Level 4 Pathways to Employment course, it was a pilot programme but from the moment I walked in the door, all the students and coordinator were so relaxed. It was like a friend talking to you rather than a teacher and that’s what really benefited me. In the Local Training Initiative (LTI) and the ETB, everyone is equal. The coordinator and the student can have a normal conversation. There is no power between the two and that is what is really helpful for me and helped me settle in.
‘After that, I did a level 5 in Sports and Recreation in Gorey also through an LTI. I had met some of the tutors when I was
in Courtown and when I went up again it was just so relaxed and so easy going. At the moment, I am in Bray Institute of Further Education doing a QQI Level 5 in Barbering. This is what I really want to do because I’d seen the gap in the market in the first lockdown’.
Hoping to set up his own business in the future, Mr Kenny said that returning to education after school helped build his confidence.
‘In Gorey Youth Needs, there was a youth club that was run by the Gorey training initiative. I volunteered there for nearly two years and that was because the course had given me so much confidence. I learned how to work with people; dealing with parents and kids who may have social issues and some are quite confident and bold as can be, so you really see different dynamics of people and it really helped me learn to work in a group especially.
‘I didn’t know what I was doing before I began. I’m from a very rough area of Dublin and not many people from there make it that far. When I moved to Wexford and started doing the training, it changed me as a person and it made me into the person I am today,’ he said.
The booklet, ‘I’m a FET Learner’, features the personal stories of ten learners like Daniel, and was officially launched by Minister Simon Harris. The launch event was led entirely by the learners.
The first forum event took place in 2016 reaching 70 learners and in 2020, over 1,400 learners.