Back to school

Further education can bolster your CV or help you switch careers, but at what price, asks Caroline Madden

LAST WEEKEND almost 3,000 people attended the Which Course exposition on adult learning at the RDS.

The popularity of the event is no surprise, given the growing interest in lifelong learning evident in Ireland. From informal evening courses in community centres through to PhD programmes, about 300,000 adults will undertake some form of further education this year, compared to 180,000 in 2000.

This autumn will see the usual mix of adult learners signing up for courses: women planning on returning to the workforce taking Fás programmes; retired people finally getting the opportunity to explore an interest; and high-fliers registering for postgraduate or professional qualifications to fast-track their careers.

This year, however, it appears that one of the key reasons for returning to education is the desire to recession-proof one's career by upskilling, or to retrain in order to move away from a sector hit by the downturn.

In a survey conducted on Irish website www.nightcourses.com, more than 60 per cent of respondents said they were more likely to take a course this autumn as a result of the downturn.

Emer Sheeran, mature student officer at NUI Maynooth, noticed an increased number of tradespeople, such as plumbers and carpenters, applying for degree courses this year. Many of these applicants are aiming to switch into a completely different area, such as teaching, she says.

Bolstering a CV with extra skills can make an employee more valuable to an employer or help them switch careers, but at what price?

A spokeswoman for Aontas, the national adult learning organisation, says the cost of further education can vary hugely.

For example, a person on social welfare who left school early and wishes to do their Leaving Certificate can take a Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme course free of charge.

Then there are thousands of evening courses available for between €150 and €200. However, those wishing to pursue a third-level qualification face much higher costs.

Mature students (those aged 23 or older) qualify for free fees if they are doing a full-time third-level course for the first time. Part-time degree or postgraduate students, on the other hand, face fees upwards of €3,500 a year.

This creates a catch-22 situation: to avoid fees, mature students must give up their jobs and study full time, but surviving without an income is difficult, particularly as mature students tend to have more financial responsibilities than other undergraduates.

Clodagh Byrne, mature student officer at Trinity College Dublin, says students undertaking a second undergraduate degree also have to pay fees. "That's an issue for people retraining or maybe changing careers," she says.

Even if a person qualifies for free fees, the cost of attending college is still high. Registration fees are roughly €1,000 a year, and the cost of books and materials can mount quickly. Also, mature students often face additional expenses such as childcare.

How can adults finance their studies? Kevin Brannigan, managing director of Learning Ireland, which operates websites including nightcourses.com and daycourses.com, says the best strategy is to persuade your employer to pay for your course.

"If they feel that it's going to be beneficial to the company, and they feel that the person isn't just doing the course to leave, you'll find that employers will be helpful with part payment or sometimes full payment, or will certainly give them [time off]."

But if the person intends to study full time, their employer is unlikely to sponsor them.

A number of State supports are available to mature students, such as the means-tested maintenance grant, the Top-Up grant for disadvantaged students, and the Back to Education Allowance, which allows the person to continue receiving social welfare payments.

However, many mature students are not eligible for such supports. "There are two sets of people who have a real struggle," says Sheeran. "One would be people who are mature students, but they might still be living with their parents. While their parents are not supporting them in any way, the household income would still be too much for them to be eligible for the grant."

The other category is someone who was earning just above the income threshold for the grant before they started studying.

"Even though they're not now working, they're still not eligible for the grant for the whole time they're in college," she says.

Many adult students rely on the support of a partner, and most end up working part time. A study carried out by National Irish Bank found that more than 72 per cent of parents in part-time or full-time education work as well as study, and almost 75 per cent have applied for a bank loan, overdraft or personal loan at least once to cover personal expenses.

Although banks aggressively target undergraduates fresh out of school, they are not as keen to lend to mature students. Few have products tailored to this segment of the market and, if they do lend to adult learners, not all banks allow them to defer the loan repayments until they finish their studies.

Some colleges provide financial assistance to mature students. For example, Trinity College Dublin has a student assistance fund. "It's means tested and it's for specific things like books and travel and childcare," says Byrne. "Depending on the circumstances, it can be a substantial amount."

People who decide to juggle study with work, but whose employers won't pay for the course, may be entitled to tax relief on tuition fees. Relief is available for certain courses at the standard rate of tax, currently 20 per cent, up to a maximum of €5,000. A list of approved courses is available on www.revenue.ie

For further details on financial supports, see www.studentfinance.ie and www.aontas.com

UCD's mother of reinvention

CASE STUDY:AS A mother of two grown-up daughters, Siobhán Mulford is not a typical second-year engineering student at UCD.

Joining a class of 270

17- and 18-year-olds last year was a huge culture shock.

"I don't think they knew what to make of what I was doing," she recalls. "I think they thought I was somebody's mother who was going to take the [ lecture] notes."

Before applying for the four-year engineering degree, Mulford completed an access course at UCD.

The course is designed to equip mature students with the skills and confidence needed to study at third level. Mulford completed the course with the marks needed to continue on to do a degree. "I realised at that stage I could do it," she says.

Mulford had gone straight into the Civil Service after completing her Leaving Certificate, and had then taken time out of her career to look after her family.

"I was very fulfilled doing that," she says.

When her daughters became older, she was able to return to work part time as a personal assistant, and then the access course opened up her horizons.

Financially it isn't easy, though. As a full-time student, Mulford qualifies for free fees, but she still has to pay a registration fee of €1,000 a year. Driving to and from UCD each day costs at least €40 a week in petrol.

Books for her course are also expensive, although she tries to use the library as much as possible and buys second-hand books whenever she can.

In addition, her eldest daughter is doing a postgraduate course and her youngest is starting a course at DIT this month.

"Now we're faced with three students [ in the family], so financially that is quite a drain because we don't qualify for grants," she says.

Mulford worked during the summer, but has to rely on a combination of savings and her husband's income during term time.

"We're not on the breadline, but it's a huge drop down from bringing in a good wage to giving that up and going back to just depending on my husband's wage," she says.

Mulford is specialising in civil engineering and is enjoying the course, but she isn't sure what she wants to do when she graduates.

"Do I see myself out on a construction site or building roads? I don't know," she says.

At the moment, Mulford is taking it one semester at a time and working hard at balancing her family life with her studies.

Caroline Madden