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Gaisce, The President’s Award: Get Involved!

04/12/14

National College of Ireland is encouraging its student body to get involved with the Gaisce – the President’s Award, one of Ireland’s oldest and most prestigious Youth Awards for all young people aged between 15 and 25. Gaisce is an old Irish word which means ‘a great achievement’ and the Award programme is a challenge from the President of Ireland to our young people to set and achieve personal goals in four different areas of activity including Community Involvement, Personal Skill, Physical Recreation and an Adventure Journey.

There are 3 levels to the Award programme, starting with Bronze and progressing to Silver or Gold with the time required increasing as a participant moves from Bronze towards the Gold Award. The minimum period to complete the Bronze Award is 26 weeks and for Gold this increases to 78 weeks.

The Award is a self-directed personal development programme in which students are supported and mentored by a President’s Award Leader (PAL), to set and achieve a personal challenge over a period of time. In embarking on the Award, the PAL works with the student to select their activities and their goals for each. As the student progresses with the activities, the PAL supports and mentors the students and helps them to overcome any obstacles.

There are so many possible benefits for a young person who participates in and completes the President’s Award.

  • Increased self-confidence and feelings of self-esteem.
  • Discovering new abilities or developing these or improving existing talents.
  • A sense of achievement in own potential and ability to set and achieve goals.
  • Improving employability by learning vocational skills bridge the gap between the skills that employers are looking for and those which formal education provide. This can facilitate the development of skills such as leadership, teamwork and co-operation, flexibility, problem solving, negotiating and influencing, and communication, all of which are valued by employers.


Upon completion of the Award programme, each student receives a certificate signed by the President of Ireland and a commemorative medal. Gold Awards are presented annually by the President of Ireland. Interested NCI students should contact Corrie Adams, Student Experience Co-ordinator, on corrie.adams@ncirl.ie for more details.