Springboard Courses

Your skills are in need in new high value employment sectors.  Springboard+ will help you make the transition.  Up-skilling and cross-skilling for an employment growth area has never been easier.  Feedback from employers confirms Springboard is producing throughput of skilled, job-ready personnel that they need. 

  • Springboard 2017
  • Who is Eligible?
  • How to Apply
  • RPL

What is Springboard+?

Springboard+ offers opportunities for FREE one-year higher education programmes. While many Springboard courses are targeted to Jobseekers, from 2017 many of the FREE courses are also open to those in employment and Homemakers. The FREE courses open to employed people will typically be in the areas of ICT Skills conversion and BioPharmaChem/Medtech manufacturing.

What courses are available under Springboard+ in 2018?

Springboard courses for the 2018-2019 academic year, commencing in September 2018, will be announced at the end of May.

Who is Eligible?

The eligible applicants for Springboard+ 2017 are as follows:

1. Those in receipt of an eligible payment from the Department of Social Protection and the formerly self-employed

2. People who meet the criteria for ICT conversion courses irrespective of employment status

3. People not in receipt of a payment from the Department of Social Protection that have been out of the work environment for a number of years due to childcare or other caring obligations and have a previous history of employment but may require upskilling, reskilling or cross-skilling to transition back to the workforce (“Homemakers”)

4. People with a level 7 ICT qualification seeking upskilling in that discipline to a level 8 irrespective of employment status

5. People who wish to upskill or reskill to meet a specific emerging skills gap in the Biopharma/Med Tech sector irrespective of employment status

Further information on eligibility is available at www.springboardcourses.ie/eligibility

How to Apply

To apply for a Springboard+ course applicants must use the centralised application system via www.springboardcourses.ie. Applications for September 2018 will open in early June 2018.

RPL

In order to encourage and enable people to enter or re-enter formal education IT Carlow welcomes applications from candidates who wish to enhance their academic eligibility for a place on a course by using the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) mechanism.
 
RPL is the term used to describe the system whereby prospective students can apply for formal recognition to a range of relevant learning that you may have gained prior to entry onto a particular course.  
 
RPL includes:
 
- Recognition of Prior Accredited Learning: This refers to the recognition of formal learning which is linked to the National Framework of Qualifications and for which certification has been awarded; it might include a course or part of a course that has been completed previously.
 
- Recognition of Prior Experiential Learning: This refers to the recognition of the kind of learning that has been gained through work or life experiences. It could also include learning gained through workplace training courses.
 
- Candidates will be asked to set out, formally and in detail using the IT Carlow Springboard RPL Form, any previous certified or experiential learning previous that they wish to have considered in the process of allocating places on a course.
 
In order to make an RPL application for a place on a IT Carlow Springboard 2017 please first contact the Springboard Co-ordinator, at springboard@itcarlow.ie with a brief outline of:
  • What course you are interested in;
  • What your current formal qualifications are;
  • What relevant experience you have.

Once this summary information has been received you will be informed on how best to proceed.

It is important to note that IT Carlow anticipates very significant demand for the Springboard 2017 courses.
 
In order to succeed in enhancing their eligibility through RPL candidates will need to engage fully and completely with the RPL requirements set out in the Springboard RPL form.
 
All modules taken on Springboard courses will typically contribute to the award classification and so module exemptions are generally not permitted.

Springboard+ Talent Directory

Is an online resource of over 6,500 highly skilled and recently trained candidates.  It provides business with a unique search engine to help fill those extra spaces in your team.  Register for free and make those connections today: Springboard+ talent directory