Upskill and up the ante
AS THE economy turned inside-out in 2008, the implosion of the construction industry and traditional blue-chip professions left thousands jobless.
For them, the challenge was to start over again — and many workers took up the gauntlet with gusto.
“We know of carpenters who have moved into project management or former workers in construction who have now moved up the food chain into the area of green technology, which is a rapidly growing sector,” says Richard Thorn, director of flexible learning with the Institutes of Technology Ireland, and project manager for the Implementation of the National Higher Education Strategy with the Higher Education Authority.
“I know of one former construction worker who used a part-time programme in electronics to develop innovative electronic products and set up a business,” he says.
Retraining intensified as unemployment spiralled following September, 2008.
Unemployment has continued to be a worry, at over 14%, and while many workers have responded by emigrating, others have returned to college.
In the last five years, full-time numbers in the institutes of technology have grown by 20% while the number of part-time students has grown by 3% — a figure which indicates that more people are leaving the workforce and returning to college to reskill or up-skill — to get a fresh start.
One of the ways into an alternative career is the BlueBrick website, ironically conceived as a response to the need for up-skilling during the boom.
Now, BlueBrick is widely perceived as a route into third-level education for those considering new and different careers.
BlueBrick initially was an initiative by the institutes of technology to make their part-time courses more visible and more organised.
“We decided to set up a website to bring these opportunities to the attention of the public so BlueBrick.ie was born,” says Thorne.
The website’s capacity to deliver flexible learning, with more technology and better marketing, was also quickly beefed up as BlueBrick became the public face of a new flexible learning drive.
Launched in September 2009, a year after the credit crunch hit, the facility quickly became a crucial resource, not only for those exploring alternative careers, but also for workers to up-skill and thereby secure their existing positions in the turbulent economic climate.
More than 5,000 people are currently studying courses for which they applied through the BlueBrick website.
“The average time spent on the site is nearly eight minutes, which means people are definitely using it as a research tool,” says Thorne, who also says that in the last six months there have been more than 162,000 unique visits to the site.
These visits have totted up more than 3.5m page views as people search for information on part-time course options in 14 institutes of technology and a number of universities, including the University of Limerick and NUI Galway.
About 130 courses on the site are government-funded under the Springboard Initiative, a programme which encourages people to reskill or to up-skill. They range from green energy to cloud computing and advanced manufacturing.
There are also some 458 non-Springboard courses on everything from hospitality to business and electronics.
“Basically, BlueBrick is a portal which makes it easy for people to find out about part-time courses in the institutes of technology and a number of universities.
“The government-funded courses are part-time, and, once people meet some basic criteria, they continue to receive social welfare entitlements.
“BlueBrick has made it far easier for individuals to find an educational opportunity which, in turn, provides them with a fresh start in the workforce or to secure what they already have in terms of employment,” says Thorne.
Thorne says at the start of the downturn people with a higher education qualification were four times less likely to lose their job than those without a third-level qualification.
“Colleges have to be flexible in the way they deliver courses and to be readily accessible and appropriate to the needs of the labour market. Individuals need to be supported when they up-skill. We believe the Springboard Initiative, combined with the efforts of the institutes and other colleges to make flexible learning more accessible, is key to this requirement,” he says.
AN ACCOUNTING and finance graduate who planned to go into financial services after graduating from the University of Limerick in 2008, Laurence Enright found himself in a collapsing jobs market.
“It was a bad time to graduate. I couldn’t find work — when I graduated, there were very few opportunities in the financial sector,” says the 25-year-old native of Knocklong, Co Limerick.
Enright went on the dole before applying for a job as a commis-chef in a Limerick hotel. “I’d always liked cooking and I was very interested in it. The head chef there was surprised that I had a business degree but wanted to become a cook. But, there was no work in the financial area.”
In September, 2008 he started in the kitchens of the hotel — but lost his job the following January when the hotel closed.
After a further four months of unemployment, Enright signed up for a 16-week course in culinary skills with Failte Ireland in May. The following September, he learned about a two-year national apprenticeship in professional cookery at the Limerick Institute of Technology through the BlueBrick website and secured a place, graduating in May, 2011.
“It’s a huge career jump but I was always very interested in cookery and I didn’t realise how far you could go with it. It was something I wanted to do. The more I kept working as a chef, the more I enjoyed it,” says Enright, who is working as a demi-chef in the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Co Waterford, with the chef Martijn Kajuiter.
“It’s a tough industry. I’m at the beginning of my cookery career and have a long way to go. I’d like to be a head chef someday — it’s a good industry to be in and I think there are many opportunities in the food industry,” he says, adding that the food sector offers a range of opportunities for further education.
“There are a lot of courses available in everything from food innovation and product development as well as opportunities for becoming a third-level lecturer in cookery. It’s a good time to be in this industry. It’s a complete u-turn and a total career change.
“If I’d managed to get a job in the financial sector out of college, I’d probably be earning more than I am now but the question is whether I’d be in the right job — I don’t think it suited me. I’ve a huge personal interest in food and cookery, something I didn’t have for the business degree and I only realised that when I started cooking.
“I think things turned out right in the end. It was disheartening to leave college and be unemployed but now it seems I have found the right career. I’m in a Michelin-starred restaurant working under a top chef and getting great experience.”
DAMIEN KENNEDY had a good job — as a qualified quantity surveyor and former site manager and safety officer with a Sligo construction firm, he and his family had a comfortable lifestyle.
But last August everything changed when the father-of-two, whose wife Catherine is a clerical officer with Sligo Institute of Technology, lost his job. “It was my first experience of recession. I’d been working for 16 years and I knew it was coming. I could see things getting quieter and quieter — I had been worried for a while.”
When the worst happened and he was finally let go, he says, his first thought was, ‘What next?’.
“I was 36 and with a long working life ahead of me. I was reading the Sunday paper one day and I saw an advertisement about the BlueBrick website and the Springboard re-skilling initiative.”
Intrigued, Kennedy visited the website and started to learn about the different courses available to him. “I found that I was eligible to do a third-level degree course while still collecting unemployment benefit.”
The Sligoman chose an online course — a BSc in manufacturing management which he expects to lead to a new career in project or line management in the manufacturing sector: “I did a lot of research into what sectors of the economy are doing well and manufacturing seems to be holding its own. It’s a two-year course and it’s completely online.”
Because he can do the course at home, he and his wife can save on childcare costs of €300 a week.
BlueBrick, he says, was a godsend.
“When you suddenly become unemployed you could get depressed, but thanks to BlueBrick and the Springboard initiative, I didn’t have time to start getting depressed.
“I was immediately sorting out an alternative career. I started the course at the end of September so there was very little hanging around.”
He is hopeful for the future:
“The manufacturing sector in the Sligo area is very strong and they are regularly hiring people.”
He believes he’s starting from a strong position – he holds a number of management qualifications and is an officer in the Reserve Defence Forces.
“I already have a number of management qualifications under my belt — I did management courses through the Construction Industry Federation, and these are applicable to any sector of the labour market. A manager is a manager in any area, so these will stand to me.”
AN INTEREST in jewellery design led student Dominie McDyer to a master’s degree in craft design and metals from the National College of Art and Design — and from there into a career as a goldsmith.
Initially things went well. After setting up her own business, McDyer enjoyed a steady flow of commissions, selling her work through the Crafts Council of Ireland.
Things began to slow down in 2007, she says, and when the recession hit in earnest, the commissions fell away and she was forced to seek work elsewhere.
A long-term relationship with a Danish wind energy technician saw her move to Denmark for more than a year. When she and her boyfriend broke up, the woman from Ballybofey, Co Donegal, returned to Ireland in November 2008.
In the interim she had become interested in wind energy and, on returning home, decided to apply for a course at Letterkenny Institute of Technology:
“I found out about the course from a local newspaper and then learned about BlueBrick. The wind energy sector interested me but I wanted to see what else was out there so I visited the BlueBrick website and found information about a lot of different courses.”
Last October, McDyer graduated with a Higher Certificate in Engineering Wind Energy after two years’ study.
The 37-year-old, who now holds the distinction of being the only female maintenance technician in Ireland’s wind energy sector, is currently seeking employment in the industry and is confident of finding work.
“I have a lot of CVs out there and I hope to be called for interview soon,” says McDyer who has applied for work in Ireland, Britain and further afield.
“There are a lot of new turbine sites coming onstream both in Ireland and abroad.”
The new year is expected to bring recruitment drives for maintenance technicians, both in Ireland and abroad, and McDyer says she is ready to take advantage of this.
“I’m hopeful and optimistic that I will find a job — the course was very good and stands us in good stead because it was quite comprehensive.
“At the start the salary would pay from €25,000 to €35,000 but you could move up to lead technician or site manager for a wind-farm and these positions would be quite well paid.”
She hasn’t left the jewellery behind completely, however:
“It’s something that will always be a part of me — I still have the workshop at home, but I am glad of the opportunity to change direction.
“I always had an interest in engineering but was never quite sure which area was most appropriate for me.
“Wind energy sector suits me because it requires a broad base across the spectrum — you have to have knowledge of mechanical engineering, electronic and electrical engineering.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
