Last weekend saw the departure of 36 students from Enniscorthy Community College of Further Education (ECCFE) incorporating Gorey Institute of Further Education to participate in a 3-week work placement to Malaga in Spain and Vasteras in Sweden. As a partner College with the European Union’s Erasmus programme, students having successfully completed a rigorous selection process are placed in work placement setting complimenting their vocational and academic learning and experience associated with their programme of study. The core emphasis of this strategic partnership between Enniscorthy Community College and Erasmus is to foster a greater appreciation of European culture and vocational experience and norms. It also aims to widen and deepen the mobility and employability of students in this same European context, and further enhance their confidence, personal and professional growth.
Over the past 15 years more than 350 students in ECC from across Co. Wexford and the South East have successfully participated in the programme, working in a range of diverse work placements including in local government and work shadowing in a nuclear power plant. To assist in this mobility, the Erasmus programme funds the travel, accommodation and subsistence for the successful applicants eliminating any financial barriers to participation.
Prior to their departure, ECC provides language and cultural classes to assist their assimilation into a new culture and experience. Building on the wider context of mobility and the need to ensure the pastoral care of the students while abroad, the students are accompanied by experienced members of College staff. These staff visit the work placements and are on hand to handle any issues or concerns that arise for the students while on placement. This eases substantially any worries or concerns which may arise for students, some of whom may be abroad for the first time in the lives.
This partnership also sees the College facilitate students from their host countries completing their Erasmus programme here in Co. Wexford. Last year students completed their work placement, in health and community care, business and retail setting learning about Irish culture and professional experience both in the that environment and in ECC prior to their placement.
All registered post-leaving certificate students at ECC incorporating GIFE may apply for a place on this programme.
The sixteen students travelling to Vasteras, Sweden were Peter Canning, Sarah Dunne, Aoife Cullen, Ciara Murphy, Grace Leavy, Lucy Williams, Lachlan O'Neill, Peter Redmond, Maja Majewska, Alex O'Brien, Anastasija Kotelevska, Nell Chapman, Aoife O'Connor, Faith Masterson, Isabelle Mooney, Joseph Ongara. They were accompanied by teachers Ms. Denise Quirke and Ms. Sharon Jackson.
The twenty students going to Malaga in Spain were Deividas Dzunkovas, Clodagh Doyle, Alex O'Brien, Darren Casey, Mark Keenan, Adele Brooks, Esther Mayor Lopez, Codi Long, Kasinah O'Gorman, Hannah Whitty, Abbie Doran, Katie Fortune, Ciara Roche, Nicole Gailis, Ella Fitzpatrick, Daria Saliuk, Jayden Morrissey, Harvey Montague, Kenneth Barnes, Ivars Aleksandrovs. The students were accompanied over by Ms. Mary Ann O'Rourke and Ms. Sara Harte.