June signals the end of the academic year, but Fórsa’s Skills Academy won’t be slowing down. The monthly Fórsa Induction and Lunch & Learn sessions will continue over the summer break. The team will also be busy organising next year’s courses; a full schedule is available here.

Applications for September courses will open beginning in the last week in June and will be advertised here, in the members’ bulletin, as well as sent directly to branches. The Skills Academy is aware of a number of employments that require up to eight weeks’ notice to secure release, which is why applications open with plenty of time to request release.  

Coming up this June, the Skills Academy has a LGBTQIA+ themed Lunch & Lunch, and the exciting first ever Skills Academy Certificate Award Ceremony. 

Skills Academy Certificate Award Ceremony – 2.30pm 24th June - Nerney’s Court 

The first ever Skills Academy Certificate Award Ceremony will take place on Tuesday 24th June at 2.30pm, in Nerney’s Court, following the Consultative Council. This first ceremony will be for students of the Level 1 Workplace Representatives’ Training, Level 2 Workplace Representatives’ Training, Mentoring programme, and Leadership programme from the classes of 2024-2025.   

It is hoped that this will become a twice-yearly event with the remainder of the certificates presented following the Consultative Council in November. 

Branch officers are encouraged to support their branch colleagues and join with other students, branch reps, national officers, and Fórsa staff to celebrate their achievement and partake of some light refreshments.   

If you would like to attend, please let the Skills Academy know by sending an email entitled “ATTENDANCE CERTIFICATE AWARD CEREMONY” to Judith at skillsacademy@forsa.ie 

Live: Lunch & Learn – Supporting our LGBTQIA+ Colleagues – 1-2pm Friday 27th June – Online 

To celebrate Pride month and our LGBTQIA+ members, the June session of Lunch & Lunch will be Supporting our LGBTQIA+ colleagues. Skills Academy will be joined by guest speaker Lenn Viken (they/them), a trainer with LGBT Ireland who has engaged in queer activism, education and politics across Norway, France and Ireland for almost a decade. 

In this session, you will learn about the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people in Ireland at present, the importance of promoting LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and tools to make your own workplace more inclusive. There will also be a short history of the queer rights movement in Ireland. 

Lenn believes in creating an inclusive and non-judgemental environment for knowledge diffusion and discussion, so members who don’t have a clear understanding of LGBTQIA+ issues are encouraged to take part. 

If you are interested, you can register here.

Watch back - Lunch & Learn 30th May - Fórsa mentoring programme 

Last month’s Lunch & Learn is now available on the Skills Academy YouTube. For those who missed it, this session took a look back on the first year of Fórsa’s mentoring programme. The Skills Academy were joined by programme participants and tutors to discuss what went right, what could be improved, how participants benefitted, and what plans lie ahead for year two. 

If you are interested in knowing more about the benefits of mentoring and how you and your branch can participate in this year’s programme, the video is linked here.

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