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An initiative now in its fourth year, has brought Southern Regional College and educational institutions in Finland, Holland, Spain and Scotland together, helping build relationships throughout the EU.
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Charlie Casey recently hosted a reception this week in the Council chamber for the Southern Regional College and 35 EU partners from the ‘Network of Networks’ group.
Cllr Casey said, “I am delighted to be able to host this reception for further education lecturers. I am also proud of the work that the Southern Regional College and other local colleges have done to continue to build relationships, share best practice and learn from each other.
“The Network has proved to be an excellent vehicle for European cooperation. The consortium has been able to bid for EU funds and on an annual basis, it is involved in 96 Erasmus+ projects, sending over 4,000 students and 1,000 staff on educational visits. This year alone, the Southern Regional College has received EU funding of approximately €900,000 for Erasmus+ projects.
“Our council has the empowerment and improvement of the capacity of our communities as one of our strategic priorities and there is no doubt that education is key to achieving this objective.”
Southern Regional College’s international programme is managed through the External Funding and International Affairs Team. It uses the EU Erasmus+ programme as the main vehicle for student and staff educational visits to partner institutions, and for implementing a range of innovative strategic partnership projects.
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Windsor Hill Primary School in Newry is just one of the schools taking part in a ‘maths with no borders’ workshop at Newry City Library tomorrow Thursday 17 October along with St Oliver’s National School, Carlingford.
Maths Week aims to promote a positive image of maths. Highlighting its importance in everyday life with events taking place throughout the week at schools, colleges, universities, libraries, and other centres throughout NI.
The all-island event, supported locally by the Department for the Economy, promotes a positive image of mathematics and its applications in everyday life.
To date over 300,000 people have registered across the island of Ireland to participate in hundreds of events and organisers are hoping to make the 2019 event bigger and better than ever before.
Sheila Donegan, who co-founded Maths Week alongside Waterford Institute of Technology colleague Eoin Gill, says we should act now to give children the best possible start to a successful future career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
“Our children’s futures are reliant on a firm grounding in basic mathematics, so it’s important we promote a positive image and engage young people in maths-based activities in a fun learning environment from an early age,” she explains.
She emphasises the importance of promoting a positive “culture of mathematics” to provide encouragement for young people to help them realise their untapped potential.
“Mathematics is fundamental to our everyday lives. We should promote a positive culture of mathematics to encourage our young people to pursue high-skilled roles not only in the STEM sector but also in the creative industries.
A host of events are taking place across Northern Ireland during the week with event partners including Ulster University, Queen’s University Belfast, Stranmillis University College, W5 and Armagh Planetarium.
Maths presenters showcasing their maths work and skills locally include maths entertainer Ken Farqhar, Bubby Maths clown Caroline Ainslie, Enigma, the Secret World of Codes expert James Grimes and maths educator and puzzle challenger Doug Buchanan. Also taking part is Izak9 founder Franz Schlindwein and Mark Saul, director of American founded Julia Robinson Festival of Maths who is presenting to schools at Queen’s University Belfast on Friday 18 October.
Maths Week Ireland takes place 12-20 October. For more information visit WWW.MATHSWEEK.IE
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Southern Regional College is launching its new online admissions portal for all full-time higher education courses for September 2020 entry on Tuesday 5 November 2019.
This means that all current BTEC Level 3, A Level or mature learners will be able to submit their online application to Southern Regional College for any full-time higher education course (September 2020 entry) from 5th November 2019 onwards.
SRC will be hosting a launch evening on 5 November at all of its main campuses: Newry, Armagh Killylea Road, Banbridge, Lurgan or Portadown from 4pm – 8pm.
Prospective students will be able to speak to highly experienced and enthusiastic lecturers to gain any further information required in advance of submitting their Higher Education course application. Staff will also be available on the evening to assist with the completion of the online applications.
Brian Doran, Principal and Chief Executive at Southern Regional College said “We are delighted to announce the launch of our new Higher Education Applications Portal on 5th November. SRC has a wide range of Higher National and Foundation Degree courses and we offer a wide range of pathways which include full-time, part-time and higher level apprenticeship. Studying at our College brings a wide range of advantages: our full-time fees are lower than the local universities; by living and studying at home you will not incur the same level of debt as a student studying at university; our class sizes are smaller than those at university and you will therefore obtain a greater level of support from our course teams. Coupled with this our higher education courses have been adjudged by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) to be of the highest standard.”
So if you are thinking of progressing to higher level study in September 2020, make SRC your first choice!
The College offers a wide range of university level courses - right here on your doorstep ranging from Foundation Degrees, HNCs, HNDs and Higher Level Apprenticeships - in areas such as Computing, Engineering, Interactive Multimedia, Accounting, Sport to Sciences to name but a few. SRC also work in partnership with leading universities like Queens University, Ulster University, Liverpool John Moores and have just recently formed a working partnership with Open University.
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Pupils from Windsor Hill PS, Newry and St Oliver’s NS, Carlingford took part in a ‘maths with no borders’ workshop at Newry Library as part of Maths Week Ireland 2019.
Over 350,000 people across the island of Ireland got involved in Maths Week at schools and colleges including Ulster University, Queen’s University Belfast, Stranmillis University College, W5 and Armagh Planetarium. Maths entertainers also presented an inter-generational event at Nazareth Care Village in Belfast and school workshops in libraries in Belfast and Newry.
Maths Week is the biggest celebration of mathematics of its kind and aims to promote the benefits of maths to pupils and the wider community. The all-island event, supported locally by the Department for the Economy, promotes a positive image of mathematics and its applications in everyday life.
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Fourteen students from Southern Regional College are currently on a two week visit to China. The students, who are studying Health & Social Care and Computing at SRC, have been invited as guests of the Chinese and are visiting Hubei Province where they will stay in the University of Hubei located in the capital, Wuhan. There they will learn about language, culture, Chinese art and undertake a number of scheduled workshops.
During the second week of their trip the students will visit the world famous 3 Gorges Dam and the Great Wall of China. Other cultural visits will include a visit to the Shanghai Museum, cruising on Huangpu River and Yangtze River, the 3rd largest in world, Beijing, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.
However, it is not all cultural activities whilst on their trip to China, the students have been scheduled for some comprehensive Chinese classes.
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Southern Regional College in Newry have hosted the worldwide MAGIC cyber competition – an ethical hacking cybersecurity competition aimed at entry-level participants from secondary school and college level who work in teams to solve a series of cybersecurity puzzles.
MAGIC is working to close the gap of needed cybersecurity professionals by increasing students’ interest in cybersecurity and by connecting communities with an interest in preparing their workforce for future careers in technology and cybersecurity.
Students from St. Colman’s College in Newry joined forces with SRC students from both the HND in Computing course (Armagh Campus) and the Foundation Degree in Computing course (Newry Campus).
The HUB facility in the SRC Newry campus proved to be both a creative and relaxed environment for the teams who were supported by both Leo McCavana, Security Engineer from AllState Northern Ireland and Joe Dolan from NI Cybersecurity who also supplied the much needed and appreciated pizza and brain food for the event!
Jonny McCullagh from First Derivatives guided the students in areas of hacking and programming solutions in Java.
Leo from Allstate Northern Ireland was highly impressed with the skills and enthusiasm of all the students and is keen to work further in future events to promote cyber awareness.
Joe Dolan, from Cyberspace NI, was delighted that SRC had hosted the event and praised the College for being one of the biggest hubs in Northern Ireland. Joe said, “I found the event bigger than just the competition as it brought schools together to compete against teams from across the world. The enthusiasm from the young people, coaches and lecturers involved was infectious.”
Staff mentors Michelle Coyle and Marie McArdle were also on hand to encourage the students and help them through the evening along with IT support from Patrick Toal.
As soon as the competition began at 5pm, there was an air of excitement and indeed competiveness amongst all of the teams. The Newry teams were competing with teams from America, Estonia and other Further Education Colleges in Northern Ireland. The large screen kept updating over the evening to show the scores and places with the rest of the world.
This global competition was a platform for team mates to collaborate, learn new skills in programming and problem solving. The engagement with industry was conducive in learning the roles that Allstate can offer and the job role of the cyber security specialist.
When the competition ended at 8:30pm, there was a buzz of achievement and many new relationships forged between students and industry representatives.
Although there were no main overall winners, Sharon McCone – Curriculum Area Manager at SRC who helped organise the event through Digital Hub NI, said that the thrill of the competition environment and the forging of working relationships with key employers on the evening was a brilliant opportunity for all the students who participated.
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The Southern Regional College Student Activities team have hosted an Ideation Camp to mark Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) at the Newry campus in partnership with Brilliant Red Ltd, a marketing agency based in Newry.
The Ideation Camp challenged students to come up with innovative business ideas and develop business plans using the Value Proposition Canvas and the Business Model Canvas. Student groups were later tasked with presenting their business models to a panel of judges in a “Dragons Den” style activity. The Ideation Camp was valuable in teaching students about creating and evaluating business plans and pitching ideas. The winning idea was an LED coat zipper proposed by Level 3 ICT students.
In Armagh, Olivia McVeigh from Olivia McVeigh Makeup spoke to the College’s Hair and Beauty students at the Lisanally Campus. She outlined how she uses social media as a tool for promoting her business and liaising with brands. Olivia, who was a finalist at the 2019 Social Media Awards, also treated students to a live beauty demonstration.
Katie Matthews from the Young Entrepreneurs Network NI will facilitate workshops at the SRC Portadown Campus on Tuesday 19th November to mark GEW 2019.
Many thanks to all guest speakers for their commitment to informing and educating SRC students on all things entrepreneurial!
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Paul Kelly, from Newry, has recently taken part in the Work at Sea project, funded by the Department of Communities as part of its neighbourhood renewal strategy. The project was delivered at the National Maritime College in Ireland and as a result Paul achieved the Standards of Training, Certification and Watch Keeping (STCW) 95 licence, in conjunction with Southern Regional College.
The STCW 95 licence enables Paul to work on board commercial and cruise ships and has given him the opportunity to complete certificates in First Aid, Personal Survival Techniques, Fire Fighting, Personal Safety and Social Responsibility.
The STCW 95 license is required to be undertaken by all seafarers in accordance with maritime code and is intended to ensure that seafarers are aware of the hazards of working on a vessel and enables crew to respond appropriately to an emergency.
As a result of Paul’s success on the Work at Sea project he has been offered sponsorship, through a Norwegian company DOF Subsea (UK branch), to complete the three year Higher National Diploma Deck Cadetship Nautical Science course at the Maritime Academy in Southampton. Paul has accepted the sponsorship and will be commencing his programme of study in February 2020.
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An event to celebrate the completion of a course, developed by the local Irish Language Community Forum (Fóram an Dúin agus Oirialla), was held last Thursday 21 November in the Sean Hollywood Arts Centre.
The course, entitled ‘Certificate of Advanced Training in the Irish Language’, was the first of its organised for young Irish speakers in the district and brought together contributors from across the Irish language sector who provided specialist workshops to pupils studying Irish at AS or A2 levels.
Organisations involved with the Forum’s innovative course include Newry Mourne and Down District Council, Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund, Conradh na Gaeilge, Cumann na bhFiann, Gael Linn, Glór na nGael, Oireachtas na Gaeilge and Cinnteacht.
Twenty-three students from 8 schools the Newry, Mourne and Down area took part in the scheme this year: St Louis Grammar School, St Malachy’s High School, St Joseph’s High School, St Paul’s High School, Our Lady’s Grammar School, Sacred Heart Grammar School, Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar School and St Colman’s College.
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Charlie Casey said, “This course is an incredible opportunity for young people to attain practical skills and receive official certification of their achievements. In addition, students will learn about the opportunities available in the Irish language sector that they may be able to take advantage of, once they leave school.
“The young people involved in this course have been able to learn from those steeped in the Irish language tradition and sector and who are leading the way for the wider Irish language community.
“We are certain that this experience will inspire the pupils to establish their own Irish language society, enabling them to enjoy their social life through Irish in their own area and to continue to develop their skillsets together.”
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