Administrative staff will play a crucial role in supporting service delivery in new education and training boards (ETBs), according to SOLAS executive director Fiona Hartley. Speaking at IMPACT’s education conference last week, the former head of Wicklow VEC said she “could not speak highly enough” of admin staff, many of whom worked “far above their grade.”
Ms Hartley said the new ETBs, which replaced vocational training committees last year, faced huge challenges. “It’s about organisational development, and admin has to be at the centre of that as a support to services. If admin support can be harnessed, ETBs will meet the challenge,” she said.
Since last July, 33 vocational education committees have been reorganised into 16 education and training boards, which have also taken on the direct training functions formerly provided by FÁS. SOLAS now provides the funding for these services.
Speaking at the same conference, ICTU general secretary David Begg also praised admin staff, and particularly school secretaries. “The relationship between schools and their communities is a very sophisticated one and clerical staff have a huge and unrecognised role as gatekeepers of that relationship,” he said.
IMPACT deputy general secretary Kevin Callinan said staff and their unions faced a challenge in providing decent work while responding to rapidly changing education and skills needs. “Education is an equalising force and a liberating power, which speaks of what a Republic is about,” he said.
INTO general secretary Sheila Nunan welcomed the developing relationship between her union and IMPACT and said teachers were now working daily with IMPACT members. “Bringing special needs education into the mainstream was one of the most positive changes in schools in the last 15 years,” she said.
This short film of young people talking about what education means to them was presented at the conference.
