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Mid West Region Flexes its Muscles as Industry-Education STEM Alliance launched

Mid West Region Flexes its Muscles as Industry-Education STEM Alliance launched – The joint initiative between the Mid-West Regional Action Plan for Jobs, Mid-West Regional Skills Forum, Limerick for Engineering and Limerick for IT creates a new pilot initiative with 19 post-primary schools under the patronage of the Limerick and Clare Education Training Board.

Mid West Region Flexes its Muscles as Industry-Education STEM Alliance launched

The Mid-West region has once again shown the strength of its innovation and collaboration by launching the first industry-education STEM alliance in Ireland at J&J VisionCare in the National Technology Park, Limerick.

The joint initiative between the Mid-West Regional Action Plan for Jobs, Mid-West Regional Skills Forum, Limerick for Engineering and Limerick for IT creates a new pilot initiative with 19 post-primary schools under the patronage of the Limerick and Clare Education Training Board.


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The Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Industry & Education Partnership will deliver a programme with LCETB post-primary schools across the region engaging and immersing educators, students and families in STEM experiences, highlighting and increasing the awareness around the importance of STEM, and in particular, the career opportunities that exist.

This will be achieved by establishing relationships with enterprise and industry, schools and educators, further and higher-level institutions, and the wider STEM community and thus fostering a culture of collaboration for professional learning in STEM education.

This project involves distributed leadership where managers and all stakeholders linked with the Mid West Action Plan for Jobs and Mid-West Regional Skills Forum, the LCETB and their schools, principals, and teachers are fully immersed and committed to the vision to engage and inspire young people from all socio-economic backgrounds to explore the opportunities of STEM careers and provide experiences of STEM, allowing the younger generations to embrace innovation and transferable skills needed across all life-situations and career paths.

This innovative Industry-Education STEM Alliance pilot project, the first of it’s kind in Ireland, will lead the way in developing a model and framework that successfully facilitates greater collaboration between industry and education.

Speaking at the launch, Órlaith Borthwick, manager of the Mid-West Action Plan for Jobs said: “More than half of current job vacancies in the region are in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).  While the region enjoys continued economic growth, with an additional 14,000 people in employment in the last two years alone, it is imperative that we ensure that future generations are aware and informed of the exciting and rewarding career opportunities that exist on their doorstep”.

The initiative, involving over 30 companies across Limerick and Clare and 19 post-primary schools seeks to develop a local framework to deliver on national education policy.

Joe Leddin, Manager Mid-West Regional Skills added: “Raising awareness and increasing familiarity between industry, educators and students derives gains, not only for individuals, but also the regional economy.  We are excited about the potential of this partnership, as we seek to increase the future talent pipeline”.

To visit the official STEM Alliance website click here

To read more Education stories on I Love Limerick click here

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