Pictured: Graduates Josiane Maria Devlin and Juris Lieknins at Ringsend College Adult Education Graduation.
Hard work was rewarded on October 21st when Ringsend College held its Adult Education Graduation. A hugely varied mix of people and skill levels was applauded by the gathering of family and friends, with Minister Kevin Humphreys there to hand out the certificates.
Sixty students in all, graduated from courses too numerous to mention here. The one thing connecting them all was the obvious pride they had in getting to graduation day.
Josiane Maria Devlin and Juris Lieknins graduated from an English as a second language course. Devlin told NewsFour she definitely plans to continue her studies into the future. “I’ll continue the one I’m doing, but will be starting an Academic English course soon. I’d like to do one in childcare after that.” Lieknins told us that he will be going on to the next level to strengthen his English speaking and will see about other subjects when he’s finished that.
Patrick Bolster has been living locally for the last year but is originally from Cork. In between looking after five kids, he has been making the most of the courses available at the college. He had just received a certificate in word processing but is studying other subjects too, such as a Personal Effectiveness course, which relates to things like managing time. He told us that “they got us used to public speaking too, by getting us to do something similar to toast masters. They brought people in to talk to us about how to get your point across as well. I find it easier to learn now than I ever did. I suppose it’s a matter of really wanting to learn.’
We also caught up with the group that had completed PC Maintenance Level 5. They started in February and finished in June, which is only half the eight months it normally takes for the course. Most of them had little or no experience with electronics, and Paul Maurice told us “it was all weekends and early mornings. We just crammed it!” And there was a lot to cram. They had to learn the function of every component in a PC and then build a computer from scratch. They helped each other through the hard times though, and are obviously a tight class, with Joe Murphy telling us, “We’re all going into year two. After that we’ll be ready for the workplace.”
Maria Riordan has a front-line role in the college, and helps put people on the right path to adult education. She told us about the complex process of fitting people with the right course options. “We literally deal with people on a one-to-one basis. We’ll sit down with them and look at what they want to achieve, but also how much time they have to give to the course. Their needs in general can be met, as we’re flexible here and can accommodate someone who, for instance, has childcare issues so can’t make it on time to classes.
By Steve Kingston
