‘It will help so many people get back learning’

A TRAINING support scheme for jobless people could help a Limerick man set up his own business.

Dermot Carroll had difficulty finding work when he returned home in 2005 after a decade in the US.

But at a conference on peak oil, he picked up a brochure on an organic horticulture course.

“I was hoping I’d get work maybe in the hotel industry but I think my age went against me,” said Dermot, 37.

He had been seeking work for eight months when he began the course at Án tIonad Glás (The Organic College) in Dromcollogher, and discovered his eligibility for the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS) scheme.

It allows people aged over 21 who have been on social welfare for more than six months to keep their benefits while taking courses operated by local VECs.

“After growing up on a dairy farm, I didn’t know how to grow things and I loved the course. The allowances under VTOS were quite small but keeping my payments was the only way I could have done the course full-time,” explained Dermot.

After finishing the two-year course, he is now in his second year of a degree in sustainable rural development at the Tipperary Institute in Thurles.

“When I’m finished, I’d be interested in giving communities opportunities to grow their own food, and get people thinking about the resources they have in their own area, which could be people themselves and their ideas.

“The VTOS scheme was brilliant, it was the only way I’d have been able to get back to education and it also helped me gain confidence because I’d only had the Leaving Certificate before that. It’s a must that they should increase the place numbers, it will help so many people get back learning,” said Dermot.

Jim McNamara, VTOS coordinator at the college, agrees. He said it is vital the Government expand the number of places, currently capped at 5,000 nationally.

“Unlike third-level colleges, which are often led from the top down, these courses, which offer everything from Junior Certificate up, are entirely focused on the learner and their skills or qualifications needs,” he said.

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