ADULT EDUCATION:GOING BACK to education is daunting prospect. No matter what supports are in place, the system simply does not suit those who have jobs and families.
Education is time-consuming and expensive. Furthermore, just consider the traditional model of a third-level course. Everybody learns the same thing at the same time. If you choose to study French and history, you will read the same material and be assessed in the same way as everybody else in your class.
This suits school-leavers. Most 18-year-olds have similar education and life experience, so it’s reasonable that they would all learn the same material at the same pace. But what about prospective students who are not 18 anymore?
A class of adult learners will have varying levels of education. Some may have left school aged 16 while others may have PhDs.
One may speak a foreign language while another might have a wealth of business experience. Is there any reason why a class of adult learners should start on the same page, study the same curriculum or achieve the same outcomes in order to gain a particular qualification? Of course not. When it comes to adult education, where time and value for money are of the essence, the course should suit the student, not the other way around.
While it may sound like a pipe-dream, a new innovation in the DCU-affiliated All Hallows College in Drumcondra, Dublin, aims to address the problems faced by adult learners by creating a course to suit individuals.
The BA for Personal and Professional Development is the next step in adult education. It’s based on a tried and tested international model which aims to suit adult learners, giving them due academic credit for what they have learned through experience and offering a flexible learning model.
“Adults shouldn’t have to sit in a classroom and learn what they already know,” says programme director Joseph McCann. Previous experience and education will not only be taken into account when students are admitted to the course, but can also be acknowledged by course credits so students can progress more quickly through the degree. The course can be completed on a part-time basis, as quickly or as slowly as required. Two or three evenings per week could be expected, and students are likely to complete between six and nine modules every year.
The BA could be finished within four to six years, but it’s up to the students and their circumstances.
Students can decide what they want to learn, essentially designing their own curriculum within the structure of the course. McCann believes that it might be just the thing to tap into the huge numbers of adults wishing to up-skill in straitened times, as well as the adults who never had the opportunity for a third-level education.
“About 80 per cent of people who finished school in 1980 never got the chance to go to college,” says McCann. “Maybe these people are seeing their children in college now and thinking they’d like to have a go at that.”
For people hoping to increase their skills base, the degree is flexible and can be designed according to the skills they need.
Cost is another important factor and fees have been kept deliberately low at €1,500 per year, regardless of the number of modules that are taken. “I’d hope that some employers might be interested in sponsoring employees through something like this,” says McCann.
A limited number of scholarship options are also available. The degree is structured into four strands, including adult learning, human development, arts and ideas, as well as a professional focus strand which enables students to target an area of particular interest.
“If there is something that a student wishes to pursue that we don’t provide, we can discuss it,” says McCann. “Basically we’re keen to enable people to pull their life and work experience together into a degree that they have planned. This is a degree where the system aims to suit the students. Not the other way around.”
For more information on the BA for Personal and Professional Development see www.allhallows.ie or call 01-8373745.
BUT CAN I DO IT? Confidence is a major issue for adult learners. Five All Hallows students relate their experiences:
TONY CARROLL
I worked in the health boards and the HSE for 40 years – first in management and later in ICT. I have a BSc in information technology and a Master’s in economic and policy studies. Those were all related to work however and I decided that I wanted to do something outside of work.
I came to All Hallows in 2003 to study philosophy. That was on a part-time basis and as I studied I became more interested in theology so I moved to that instead. After a year, I opted to take early retirement and I came here full-time after that.
In year two, I did a placement where I worked in advocacy services for care for the elderly. It was a life-changing experience. Out of that I got a part-time advocacy job with a company that manages nursing homes. I thoroughly enjoy it.
It’s a very demanding course but it’s great. When I was in DCU and Trinity, it was very rare that you’d have a conversation with a lecturer. Here, it’s just very human. Lecturers, librarians, they’re all there to help.
ASHLING POWER
I’m from Finglas. I finished my Leaving Cert but I was a bit of a wild teen. I left home at 15 and only came back three years later when I was pregnant. My daughter was born and I got a one bedroom flat in Ballymun. I battled with depression and got involved in drugs. I thought I knew what Hell was but then my brother died by suicide. It was devastating.
It took about two years, but I joined a social support group and I became interested in education. I did a sign language course. I started working with children as well, teaching them arts and crafts, which meant that I started painting myself. I did a cert in counselling in NUI Maynooth and I did well in it, which made me think that I should go on and do a degree.
I started looking at colleges and I did the interview here. I got a place and then I was told I had a new house so I moved there in December. I came here to do philosophy, but I began to feel that psychology might be more useful to me
It was really tough to begin with. In my first essay I had one sentence of 100 words. No punctuation nothing. My lecturer pointed it out, but he said, “Well if Joyce can do it . . .” Me being here has a huge knock-on effect. My brother is in first year here now. People look at you and they think, “Well if she can do it, why can’t I?”
JUNE O’TOOLE
My three boys are all students now, so we’re all in it together. I used to work in Guinness but I chose to leave work to look after my boys. We had two back then.
I had always wanted to go back to education. I did all these courses in all sorts of things – Montessori, counselling, NLP – but I never felt it was enough. I felt there was something missing.
Then, I suffered two miscarriages in a row, before our third son was born. That was very hard. I became involved in the Miscarriage Association and I’m still involved to this day. I do everything for my three sons, but it’s the two I don’t have that drive me. I think that the attitude is very good for adult learners. There’s no such thing as a stupid question and you’re encouraged to try things before you leave.
As part of the work experience element here, I had the opportunity to work in Holles Street, shadowing the chaplain. It was a really wonderful experience. I think that’s the kind of thing I’d like to do when I finish here.
SEAN CURRAN
I had sort of a mis-spent youth. I was involved in drugs and I had been in and out of prison for years. I got interested in education when I was in prison in 2001. All Hallows actually sent someone up to me in prison who told me about the courses here. At that time, I wasn’t ready though. I was still addicted.
It stayed with me though. I got clean in 2006 and I remember seeing this ad for All Hallows – people were reading in these rose gardens. I just thought, “God if I had gone back then that could have been me there”.
I decided to do the interview. I was honestly like a howling lunatic but people understood. It was just a really welcoming and nurturing environment. It wasn’t easy. I remember sitting in my first English lecture. I was so nervous. The lecturer was talking away and suddenly he paused and said, “This lecture is supposed to end by such and such a time. If I’m still talking by then just get up and leave”. It was brilliant, so unexpected. A barrier broke down there and then. There’s something here, something alive about the place. It’s tough but I’m really enjoying the whole experience.
SAMANTHA BYRNE
I grew up in Ballymun and I did a lot of youth work and youth advocacy in the community. I also sang in church and I suppose I came around to the notion that I’d like to combine the two into pastoral work. My mother was surprised. She said to me, “Would you not study interior design instead of religion?” But it was psychology and theology that I was interested in.
I struggled a lot initially. In one of the early theology lectures, we were told to get a theology dictionary. I remember thinking, “Never mind a theology dictionary, I need an English dictionary to understand what’s going on here”. The language, everything took a lot of getting used to. Everyone was in the same boat though, and the one or two who were more assured were willing to explain what was going on over a coffee. There’s a great support network here and it’s very social. Everyone comes from different walks of life.
I think the thing I like best is the pastoral dimension that brings you out into the community. You’re not just in college. You’re actually out doing something as well.
