Silver jubilee celebrations for VTOS programmes at Colaiste Eile

Over 100 students from Colaiste Eile were awarded a range of minor and major QQI awards at a reception held in the Thurles campus last Friday which coincided with 25 years of VTOS programmes running at the College of Further Education.

Opening proceedings Coláiste Éile’s coordinator Dr Laurenz Egan welcomed the assembled award recipients, their families, friends and staff, acknowledging the high volume of students who have gone on to secure full and part time employment following the completion of their courses at the college.

“This is the first awards ceremony where there are empty chairs because so many of our former students have secured jobs and simply were unable to take time off,” he said, adding that in the last 18 months 48 students who completed courses at Colaiste Eile have gone on to secure full time jobs while more than 50 award recipients have secured part time work.

Pic: Peg Hanafin presenting the Peg Hanafin Trophy and Bursary to this year’s winner Martina Stapleton

Former Colaiste Eile coordinator Peg Hanafin was also on hand to share inspiring works with the graduates urging them to “keep moving and learning.”

“Know you can go further. At my age I still like to learn new things and work everyday,” she said, highlighting the wide range of further education opportunities in Thurles.

Echoing her sentiments was Director of Further Education and Training Eileen Condon who told the audience: “No matter where you go, this type of education and training has currency and will take you places.”

Martina Stapleton, Horse and Jockey, was awarded one of the biggest honours of the day when she was named the recipient of the Peg Hanafin trophy and bursary worth €1,000.

Martina, who returned to further education following the birth of her daughter, said she was “shocked but delighted” to follow in the footsteps of previous winners including 2017 recipient Karen Hickey.

“I heard about the courses running at Colaiste Eile through word of mouth and decided to sign up. I knew I wanted to return to the workplace when my daughter was old enough but I felt I needed to up skill. I’m delighted with the outcome and how the course went and I’d highly recommend for anyone thinking of going into further training or education to take that next step and sign up,” she said.

Student of the year awards were also awarded to Denis Gormley, Siobhan Hennessy, Angela Mullins and Abdal Karim Askar.