NAPD-FET
Significant Retirements
NAPD-FET
would like to acknowledge the work, contribution and support to the FET sector
for many years of both Fiona Harley and Peter Baldwin. Both retires have contributed to the
development of the FET sector and have been, in particular, fully supported the
work of NAPD-FET. Fiona and Peter have
listened to, debated, consulted and respected the views of the NAPD-FET
committee for many years, in particular in relation to the PLC Review.
Fiona
Harley retires as Executive Director of Strategy in SOLAS, has a long history
in the FET sector servicing as a teacher, Education Office and CEO of a
VEC. Peter Baldwin retires as Assistant
General Secretary of the Department of Education and Skills with responsibility
for FET.
Programme
Learner Support System (PLSS)
On
the 16th of June 2017 online applications through PLSS and
fetchcourses.ie was launched in ETBI House in Kilcullen, Co Kildare. This launch represents a signification
improvement in MIS systems for NAPD PLC Schools and Colleges. While it will take some time to move over to PLSS
as an online applications platform, for NAPD-FET PLC Schools and Colleges due
to current contracts with online admissions providers for September 2017, this system
will reduce the number of online databases that are involved in the
administration of PLC schools and colleges.
It is completely intergratable with FARR and VSWare.
Prior
to the launch of this online facility NAPD-FET, had an opportunity to consult
with ETBI and SOLAS on 3rd May 2017 in Dún Laoghaire Further
Education Institute. ETBI was
represented by Fiona Maloney and SOLAS was represented by Sile Mullin. The PLC sector is represented by Tom Taylor
(Principal of Sallynoggin College of Further Education and DDLETB) and Gerry
McKenny (Deputy Principal Cavan Institute for Further Education and CMETB).
College
Awareness Week and VET Week
Both
CAW and European VET week fall on the same week in November 2017 form Monday 20th
to Friday 24th November for VET week and to Sunday the 26th November for CAW
week. This year’s CAW launch will take
place in Dún Laoghaire Further Education Institute and builds on the successful
launches in a variety of other educational settings such as a post-primary
school, and IOT and a Library. Further
information will be available in September 2017. NAPD-FET Schools and Colleges are encouraged
to enrol CAW activities on www.collegeaware.ie.
ETBI Quality
Assurance Policies and Procedures
ETBI are currently
consulting on Policies and Procedures in relation to Assessment and Work
Experience. All NAPD-FET Schools and
Colleges are encouraged to feed back any issues, comments and/or
recommendations to the local ETB as soon as possible. The areas being consulted in relation to
assessment are as follows: Assessment
Malpractice, Compassionate Considerations, Reasonable Accommodations and
Assessment Deadlines.
PLC Review
Due
to current changes in the political climate the ESRI Evaluation of the PLC
Programme, Evidence for Policy” and the “SOLAS Response to the Findings of the
Evaluation of the National Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) Programme” are still
awaiting publication. NAPD-FET is
closely monitoring the situation and will inform members when this review and
SOLAS recommendations are published.