Transcript Slide 1

County Wicklow Adult Guidance
Service
Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board
Two roads diverged in a wood, and II took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference!
Robert Frost
Definition of Guidance
(National Lifelong Guidance Framework)
‘Guidance facilitates people throughout their lives to manage their own
educational, training, occupational, personal, social and life choices so
that they reach their full potential and contribute to the development of a
better society’
Guidance refers to a range of activities designed to assist people to
make these choices.
In the context of adult education these activities include:
-Information
-Advising
-Counselling
-Assessing
-Enabling
-Advocating
-Networking
-Referral
-Providing Feedback
-Managing
-Mentoring
-Innovating
A Model of Guidance
Adult Guidance is concerned with “A changing individual in a changing
society”. With a changing self and changing situations the matching
process is never really completed (Donald Super)
Adult career development is enmeshed in a complexity of life roles and
transitions, parent – child - breadwinner, homemaker, dual income
couples, retirees. The Blended life pattern sees adults moving in and
out of work, education and family responsibilities over their life time
(NCGE Report 1998).
The Adult Guidance Counsellor acts as a catalyst for change and
provides a framework through which the client can be supported to
deal with their personal, social, educational, work, family, community
and spiritual issues.
A Model of Guidance
We use an integrative, humanistic intercultural model of guidance which
recognises the multi-potential of everyone and ensures that people are
motivated and empowered to develop their skills and abilities throughout
their lives.
While adult guidance is at its heart concerned with helping individuals, it is
also like education, a deeply socio-political activity because “ it operates at
the interface between personal and societal needs, between individual
aspirations and opportunity structures, between private and public identities”.
(FAS conference 2002. T.Watts)
County Wicklow Adult Guidance Service
The County Wicklow Adult Guidance Service opened to the
public in September 2002. It was established by County
Wicklow VEC in response to the proposal in the White Paper on
Adult Education “Learning for Life 2000”. The White Paper
recognised that “Adult Guidance was emerging as the
lynchpin in the lifelong learning model, enabling adults to
make educational, work and life transitions, in a fast
moving technologically based information society”
The County Wicklow Adult Guidance Service is a
countywide service with centres in:
• Bray
• Wicklow/Arklow
• West Wicklow (Blessington/Baltinglass/Carnew)
The Service is:
-Free
-Friendly
-Confidential
-Available to everyone over 18 years
Objectives
The County Wicklow Adult Guidance Service provides a comprehensive guidance,
counselling and information service to all students attending adult education centres in the
Co. Wicklow area, with particular emphasis on VTOS, Literacy and Adult Community
students. More recently our target groups have expanded to include clients on the Back to
Education Initiative Programmes (BTEI) and clients of the Education Finance Board.
These clients include:
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Unemployed people
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People with disabilities
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Lone Parents
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Early school leavers
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Travellers
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Ex-offenders
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Homeless people
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Older people
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Persons from ethnic minority backgrounds
The service is available and marketed to adults attending courses in local adult and
community education centres, adults attending night courses, and any adults in the
community who are unemployed, have been made redundant, are attempting to re-enter the
workforce, or are seeking a career change.
Objectives
We work in close cooperation with all relevant national and local agencies (SOLAS,
Department of Social Protection, Wicklow County Council, Partnerships, Local Employment
Services, Health/Disability Services, and all national and local voluntary organisations) to
ensure that any gaps in the service for our client groups are identified, and that courses or
resources can be made available to ensure the best outcome for users of the adult education
service in County Wicklow. We also support improved quality through staff and programme
development initiatives.
The Adult Guidance Service provides guidance to adults at the pre-entry, entry, pre-exit and
follow-up stage of those engaged in adult education. The service is underpinned by the
following principles:
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Learner/Client centredness
Confidentiality
Impartiality
Equal opportunities
Accessibility
Transparency
Empowerment
Services Provided
•One-to-one guidance (helping people with their educational, personal,
social and career choices)
•Group guidance sessions to learners attending local Kildare and
Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB) adult education
centres, and those attending local community education
groups in County Wicklow
•Information on all local and national courses
•Full resource on educational and career library with access to the
internet
•CV preparation and interview skills
Services Provided
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Study Skills workshops
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Mature students application procedure for third level colleges
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Information and advice on education grants, rights and entitlements
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Information on:
» VTOS (Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme)
» BTEI (Back to Education Initiative)
» BTEA (Back to Education Allowance)
Guidance for literacy, VTOS and Adult and Community
Education students:
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•Finding a path (helping with life choices i.e. education,
training and work)
•Building confidence and self-esteem
•Giving good information
Initial progression routes for students:
Part-time programmes through the Adult Education Basic Services
in the Adult Learning Centres within Kildare and Wicklow
Education and Training Board
Intensive Tuition on Adult Basic Education (ITABE) courses
Basic computers courses
FETAC level 1,2,3 and 4 courses
Progression routes from the Adult Learning
Centres:
•Courses in our Further Education Centres of KWETB through
Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS), Back to
Education Allowance (BTEA) Back to Education Initiative
(BTEI) and Community Education Programmes
•Post Leaving Certificate Centres (PLC): FETAC level 5 and 6
•Third Level options: Level 6, 7 and 8
•Work, FAS, Local Employment Service (LES), National
Learning Network (NLN)
Ongoing work of the service
Priorities for 2014:
The major focus of our work in 2014 is to develop a protocol with the Department of Social
Protection and our services to provide quality guidance to people in receipt of a social welfare
payment. The challenge is to support the National Jobs Strategy launched by the government in
February 2014, but also ensure that our model, ethos and values of guidance are not
compromised within that process.
Ongoing work:
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Attendance at all open days of Further Adult and Community Education Centres in the county.
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Delivery of workshops on a wide range of guidance and information issues to targets groups
within the county i.e. FETAC progression routes, information on courses, rights and entitlements,
CAO, study skills, CV preparation and interview skills and stress and time management.
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Advocating and networking with a range of local and national agencies on behalf of clients.
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Participation ongoing professional training and development for staff provided by KWETB, NCGE
and IGC.
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Participation in a range of local KWETB, partnership and community initiatives to develop
services for clients.
See statistics for County Wicklow Adult Guidance Service
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Begin
by Brendan Kennelly
Begin again to the summoning birds
to the sight of light at the window,
begin to the roar of morning traffic
all along Pembroke Road.
Every beginning is a promise
born in light and dying in dark
determination and exaltation of springtime
flowering the way to work.
Begin to the pageant of queuing girls
the arrogant loneliness of swans in the canal
bridges linking the past and future
old friends passing though with us still.
Begin to the loneliness that cannot end
since it perhaps is what makes us begin,
begin to wonder at unknown faces
at crying birds in the sudden rain
at branches stark in the willing sunlight
at seagulls foraging for bread
at couples sharing a sunny secret
alone together while making good.
Though we live in a world that dreams of ending
that always seems about to give in
something that will not acknowledge conclusion
insists that we forever begin.
from The Essential Brendan Kennelly: With CD Recordings
(Bloodaxe Books, 2011)
By kind permission of the author and Bloodaxe Books
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