This week, the Early Learning Initiative (ELI) at NCI kicked off its Education Guidance Programme at the college. McCann FitzGerald has signed up for the second year to lend its support to ELI, which was developed to support early years learning and address the problem of educational underachievement in marginalised communities in the Docklands.

The Education Guidance Programme is a project-based learning programme, which is aimed at fifth and sixth class children in the local primary schools in the Docklands area and was developed to raise the educational and career aspirations of these children. The launch event featured an exhibit of projects that the children have been working on since November 2013, and sought to raise awareness among students, parents and teachers of the necessity of having a third-level education to pursue certain careers.

The Education Guidance Programme is divided into two strands: the first group is aimed at 5th class pupils and is group based projects researching specific careers, i.e. looking at what a given job involves and the training and qualifications needed; and the second is aimed at 6th class and is group based projects involving small scale pieces of research in the community using questionnaires and interviews.

Josephine Bleach, ‎Director, Early Learning Initiative at National College of Ireland, said: “We are pleased to have McCann FitzGerald’s support for this initiative and particularly that they are lending their knowledge and expertise to the judging of the exhibits and spending time with the children. The project aims to highlight to the children the importance of making informed decisions about their future, especially about going to secondary school.”

She added: “Feedback from the children last year was very positive, and interaction with people from the business world serves to provide them with motivation and ambitions to view their education differently and go on to third level one day themselves.”

McCann FitzGerald volunteers act as judges at the exhibition, the purpose of which is to give the children an opportunity to demonstrate their learning, practice their presentation skills, and receive constructive feedback on their work. Following the event, volunteers will be invited to visit with a class of children to discuss career plans and education, and also to talk about their particular career background, their education path and answer questions.

John Cronin, Chairman at McCann FitzGerald said: “We are delighted to be part of such a worthy initiative and to be working with the Early Learning Initiative. As a firm, we value education highly and are keen to be involved with the education of the next generation wherever possible. We want to be hands on, and mentoring and sharing our experiences is just one way in which we can do this.” 

Read more on the work of the Early Learning Initiative at NCI.