The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris and Minister of State for Further Education and Skills Niall Collins launched a three-year strategy for the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

Minister Harris said:

“The department has ambitious goals to reform our higher education sector, to grow our research and innovation system and to develop the skills agenda.

“At the heart of our department is an objective to ensure everyone regardless of their background, age, gender, or address – achieves their best potential, whether that is through education or the workforce.

Download the Statement of Strategy (English) Download the Statement of Strategy (Irish)

You can listen to an interview with Minister Harris, discussing the new strategy on the Pat Kenny show on Newstalk.

The strategy sets out the department’s ambition to:

• improve the transition to further and higher education for school leavers
• implement a new 10-year strategy to improve literacy, numeracy and digital skills to ensure nobody is left behind
• reform skills training and invest in upskilling and reskilling opportunities in areas of economic growth including in the area of green and digital skills
• overhaul the Apprenticeship system and develop a new plan to increase apprenticeships to 10,000 every year
• put in place a sustainable approach to higher education funding
• introduce new legislation to reform higher education governance
• undertake a national engagement on research and science and develop a renewed national strategy to succeed Innovation 2020
• implement a new Access Plan for higher education and review the Student Grant Scheme
  grow our international reach and position Ireland as a leader in higher education and research
  support the establishment of Technological Universities across the country to improve access to higher education and to act as anchors for regional and national innovation and growth
• advance North South co-operation in higher education and research
• lead the COVID-19 response for the sector to enable higher and further education to respond to and recover from the ongoing crisis

Minister of State Collins added:

“The department has exciting plans to reform the skills agenda including a new Apprenticeship Action Plan, which will set out ambitious targets to increase the number of people participating in the earn and learn model.

“We will also be developing a series of initiatives to ensure our workforce has the right skills in the aftermath of the pandemic and in areas of economic growth.”

Jim Breslin, Secretary General of the department said:

“Our further and higher education and research systems represent a critical national asset which can support the future success of our citizens. Our Statement of Strategy identifies how, as a new department working with a vibrant sector, we can make a difference to our country’s future. We received tremendous engagement from across the organisation and from external stakeholders in developing our Strategy and we are eager to work with everyone on its implementation.”

Happy New Year to all of our staff, students, trainees and adult learners.

2020 was a difficult, challenging year for many people. There was a lot of uncertainty and unfortunately, that continues as we start into a new year.

However, one thing we can be certain of, is that all of our staff will continue to provide high-quality education and training in the many forms that takes.

Best wishes for 2021!

Today is the day! DDLETB Proudly Presents …

The Winter Connect Event – Celebrating Creativity & Resilience Across The DDLETB Learning Community

Are you a staff member or a learner in DDLETB? Are you
particularly proud of your learners, staff, teachers or parents this year? Then join in as we showcase our amazing students and staff.

We’ll stream live, using TEAMS, into face to face and remote
DDLETB classrooms. ‘The Winter Connect Event’ will celebrate the creativity and resilience of our learning community on Thursday 17th December!

Join the fun at 10am using this link to Teams – https://bit.ly/DDLETB-Winter-Connect

Today we have a great story about two students at Lucan Community College. Hannah O’Reilly and Kaytlyn Monaghan are two fifth-year students in the school.

The girls had lost their part-time jobs due to the COVID pandemic. Looking for an opportunity to earn some income, they have joined together to market beautiful and affordable wooden snowmen, reindeer food treats and marshmallows.

Kaytlyn’s Dad is a woodturner and he shapes the snowmen and the girls do decoration and sales and marketing. 

The snowmen are available in two styles – wood turned (as seen above) and wood sliced versions (below).

The snowmen can be personalised with names or messages.

Two other products that the girls are promoting are sweet treats, Reindeer food and Reindeer hot chocolate with marshmallows.

Congratulations to the girls on their entrepreneurial endeavours.

We think their level of creativity and resilience during these difficult times is a credit to the school and their families.

You can get in contact and buy these gorgeous products by visiting the girl’s Facebook page – A Covid Christmas or Instagram – A Covid Christmas.

DDLETB is pleased to announce it will apply for patronage of two new schools. Both schools will open in September 2021 and DDLETB is asking your community to support a Community National School.

Where Are The Schools Located?

School 1:  Primary School 8 classrooms in Sallynoggin, Killiney, Dún Laoghaire, Cherrywood.

School 2:  Primary School which has been designated as an 8 classroom Gaelscoileanna in Howth, Donaghmede, Dublin 13.

Voting has not yet begun, but we expect it will soon.  If you have any questions get in touch with janetmurphy@ddletb.com

To stay up to date with information on schools in your area, please join our mailing list www.bitly.com/ETBschools.

Visit our designated Community National School website www.cns.ie to view our CNS model and access information on our multi-belief ‘Goodness Me, Goodness You Programme’.

You can also follow us on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages

www.facebook.com/DDLETBSouthDublin

www.instagram.com/southdublinschools

www.facebook.com/howthdonaghmedeschools

www.instagram.com/howthdonaghmedeschools

www.twitter.com/cnsinyourarea