Dundalk Chamber of Commerce lead local school mentoring programme
Following on from the success of last year’s School Mentoring Initiative, Dundalk Chamber of Commerce once again engaged with local secondary schools whereby volunteers from across the Chamber member organisations gave their time and expertise to meet with transition year students.
Led by Brendan Gallagher, Chamber of Commerce Council Member and Director of TDS Operations for Prometric, a call was put out to the Chamber membership seeking volunteers to lend their expertise and knowledge to provide benefit to the local school community.
A spokeswoman for Dundalk Chamber said: ‘ The response from the business community was extremely positive with many business leaders eager to give of their time to benefit the schools and their pupils.’
She continued: ‘A match making process ensued whereby business volunteers were matched to schools based on the topics the schools were interested in and the particular areas of expertise of the volunteers. From that point the visits by business volunteers to the various schools took place.’
‘Based on the very positive feedback from the schools and their pupils they certainly found it to be a very worthwhile and beneficial experience.’
The year was closed out with several business volunteers conducting TY mock interviews alongside parents in Dundalk Grammar School.
Among the local schools who participated in and benefited from the Chamber Schools initiative this year were St. Vincent’s Secondary, The Marist, Dundalk Grammar School, O’Fiaich College, Coláiste Rís and the De Le Salle.