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DkIT offering 124 free and subsidised places on new Springboard+ courses

06 July 2018

Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) is delighted to announce it will be running a suite of new upskilling courses for the academic year 2018-2019 as part of the new Springboard+ 2018 initiative recently announced by Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton and Minister of State for Training, Skills and Innovation John Halligan.



As part of the initiative, DkIT is offering 124 places on a variety of part-time Springboard+ courses to applicants who qualify under the government scheme. This marks an increase on 80% compared to available Springboard places last year. The upskilling and reskilling courses are free for the unemployed and for homemakers while the employed can avail of a 90% discount across our suite of programmes.

DkIT is deeply committed to the provision of lifelong learning and upskilling opportunities for people living in the  North Leinster and South Ulster region. DkIT Springboard+ courses are fully accredited and are available in NFQ Levels 6, 7 and 8. Courses include:

Speaking at the launch of Springboard+ 2018, Minister Bruton said 

“Ireland’s economic bounce-back has been achieved by many enterprises and workers who reinvented their business, but we have also seen nearly 50,000 people reinvent themselves by using Springboard to change career. This is still a very exiting pathway which we are now opening to those in employment and homemakers. There are now over 8,000 places on 245 courses across the country – a 25% increase on last year.”

Anton Barrett, Head of Lifelong Learning at DkIT commented: 

“We are now welcoming applications to our 8 new Springboard+ courses commencing in September 2018 and January 2019.  Springboard+ is now available to applicants seeking to upskill or reskill which is an exciting development for employers interested in training their staff up in areas such as Business & Marketing, Data Analytics, Applied Electrical Engineering, Computing, Creative Media and Agrifood. I look forward to continuing to work with employers across our region to help serve their training and development needs.”

Nationwide, over 8,000 places will be available on Springboard+ courses over the coming academic year, including courses focused on emerging employment sectors, such as Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. The number of course-places has increased by 25 per cent since last year. The 8,088 places on offer under Springboard+ 2018 represents an investment of €30.438m from the National Training Fund with co-funding from the European Union under the European Social Fund, as part of the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning 2014-2020.

More information on Springboard+ is available by contacting the Lifelong Learning Centre at DkIT (e. springboard@dkit.ie t. +353 (0)42 9370290) or by visiting www.dkit.ie/springboard

In addition to Springboard+ 2018 opportunities, the Lifelong Learning Centre at DkIT offers a suite of more than 60 Part-Time Courses in areas such as Science, Business, Finance, Marketing, Engineering, Applied Science and Nursing & Health. Applications are now open for Part-Time Courses, more information is available at www.dkit.ie/part-time


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