2024: Turning the vision of FET College of the Future into the Now

SOLAS/19.12.2024

2024 was another incredible year for FET! Highlights included 5 FET Colleges of the Future capital projects recently moving to the next stage of development. They will provide essential learning spaces at the heart of communities, driving lifelong learning and workforce transformation.  

With one in ten adults in Ireland learning through FET or apprenticeships in 2023, the ongoing development of these high-profile projects in key locations across the country are playing a critical role in further positioning FET as the go to place for lifelong learning throughout lifetimes and careers.

In partnership with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science, and the Education and Training Boards (ETBs), the SOLAS FET College of the Future unit has worked to realise our shared, ambitious vision for the future of FET, through the management of capital investment, driven by the Transforming Learning FET strategy.

FET College of the Future is an ethos, a way of delivering FET into the future and evolving facilities and FET provision into a distinct integrated FET college offering. It is a major programme of capital investment that will modernise and upgrade Colleges of FET to provide transformational learner experiences across the country, together with sustainable campuses that will deliver modern skills development opportunities and learning spaces, that will serve communities and learners alike. This new infrastructure will allow for the consolidation and integration of FET provision that the ETB provides in the region.

Proposed new colleges of FET will feature fit-for-purpose, digitally enabled facilities to enhance accessibility and education pathways while promoting local development and will also facilitate the expansion of the range of certified programmes available and introduce new employment-themed initiatives to meet workforce needs.

Recent FET College of the Futures which have recently met key milestones in their development include Cork ETB, Limerick Mayo ETB, Tipperary ETB, Kildare Wicklow ETB, and Cavan Meath ETB, marking an important step for turning a vision we had for a FET College of the Future into the now.

Learn more about SOLAS FET College of the Future unit and their work.