Return to college helps professionals find employment

A RANGE of courses for unemployed professionals is already yielding work for students who returned to study at Cork Institute of Technology.

Mary Flynn from Fermoy was one of 74 graduates of the college’s Labour Market Activation (LMA) courses who received their parchments at CIT’s National Maritime College of Ireland in Ringaskiddy yesterday.

After returning from travels in South America two years ago, the 2003 civil and environmental engineering graduate was unable to find work in an economic landscape utterly changed from the one she had left just eight months earlier.

“The course was opening up in September 2009 and it focused on renewable energy aspects and environmental elements like flood relief,” she said.

With the special purpose certificate in environmental and energy engineering she and 20 others completed, work has been easier to come by and she is now working for the project managers on the second phase of the River Suir flood relief scheme in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.

“The course definitely boosted my CV because, although I was already qualified in this area, we did hydrology projects which were very relevant to what I’m doing now. I hope to get into something in renewable energy after my 18-month contract ends,” the 29-year-old said.

Meanwhile, Kieran Leahy from Blackrock was in the same course that finished last summer and, although not yet able to find work, he remains optimistic.

He was in a number of consultancy and contract positions in the construction industry since he got his civil engineering diploma in 2000 but was laid off in mid-2009 as building work dried up.

“I heard about the LMA course on the radio so I wasn’t too long out of work. I saw it as an opportunity to go and do something positive, by studying areas of engineering I didn’t previously have a lot of experience in,” he said.

Despite his bright outlook, Mr Leahy finds it frustrating trying to get work.

He and his wife have three children, aged two , to seven years, but the LMA funding through the Department of Education meant he and other students could keep their social welfare payments while on their courses.

“I’m spending a couple of mornings a week trawling through websites and sending off CVs to companies I think might have use for my skills,” he explained.

“But a lot of firms are looking for very specific people to hit the ground running, they’re not giving opportunities to people who could come in on a learning role as well,” said Mr Leahy.

Other LMA graduates picked up their awards for courses in areas such as process control, automation, IT systems, and product design and development.

The same venue hosted a graduation ceremony for more than 80 people who completed certificate and degree courses at the maritime college. Among them was musician Phil Coulter’s son Daragh, who received a bachelor of science in nautical science.