Ballyhoura Development Programme to Deliver Employment Opportunities for Women

Amanda Slattery, Ballyhoura Development with Minister of State for Justice & Equality David Stanton, T.D. and Carrie O’Donoghue, Ballyhoura Development at the launch in Limerick of a new Ballyhoura Development Programme to support women back into the workplace in the area of healthcare, provided by Ballyhoura Development in partnership with SECAD.
Photo: Cathal Noonan

A Ballyhoura Development Programme to Deliver Healthcare Employment Opportunities for Women in Rural Areas

A Ballyhoura Development Programme has been launched in partnership with SECAD, to support women back into the workplace, particularly in the health care area. The programme will target women who are living in rural areas in Limerick and Cork and will be funded under the Programme for Equality Learning and Inclusion.

“This programme has been developed to support women who want to return to work, but have been detached from the labour market or maybe with lower levels of formal education or skills have been unable to enter the labour market,” said Padraig Casey, Chief Executive, Ballyhoura Development.

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“As well as accredited training and skills, such as a recognised QQI Level 5 qualification in Health Care, this programme will help participants to progress by improving their confidence, skills and knowledge to return to the labour market.  We will be delivering the programmes over 3 years from 2017 to 2019 in 4 locations across Cork and Limerick.”

There is a strong demand for carers, home care support, medical assistants and healthcare support workers with the care industry in Ireland being a major growth area. The programme is managed by Ballyhoura Development in partnership with SECAD. It enables full participation by designing a flexible training programme with ongoing personal and professional supports. The programme has been designed to meet the needs of the ever-growing care industry in Ireland with work experience built into the programme to support increased understanding of client care and care settings. 

Ongoing mentoring and coaching throughout the programme will increase completion rates and enhance the level of accredited learning.

The Healthcare Opportunities training network will provide a facilitated support mechanism to participants to encourage commitment throughout the training and into sustainable employment.
Improved levels of education will improve future sustainable employment prospects and thereby create economic independence and reduce the risk of poverty in older years.

The Healthcare Opportunities Project is co-funded by the Irish Government and the European Social Fund as part of the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014-2020.

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