Learner Supports and Engagement Service was formed in late 2022 and moved into Winstead in January 2023. It was established to support and empower City of Dublin FET College FET centres to provide a high quality learning experience for all, through the sharing of practice and the collaborative development of policies, resources and toolkits. The national FET Strategy 2020-24 identified learner supports as a key area of strategic focus under the pillar of inclusion and was highlighted again in the recommendations arising from the recent inaugural review of FET in City of Dublin FET College. The Learner Supports and Engagement Service will work with centres on a broad range of areas related to learner supports, including:

  • learner voice and learner leadership
  • pre-college supports
  • admissions procedures, systems and resources
  • induction
  • recognition of Prior Learning
  • disability supports
  • language, literacy, numeracy
  • study skills
  • extracurricular/non-curricular activities and events

Learner Surveys

One of the functions of the Learner Supports and Engagement Service is to support the development of mechanisms to capture learner voice. The annual survey addresses core questions, while allowing for the development of a number of thematic areas of focus. The Quality Assurance and Development Group (QADG) is responsible for the identification of thematic areas. The survey is then developed by the Learner Supports and Engagement Service in consultation with representatives from the five service spheres and is brought to the QADG for approval.

The annual survey is distributed to learners across all FET centres in City of Dublin FET College to establish annual baseline evaluative data. Following completion of the survey, centres are provided with the data from their respective centres while thematic reports provide aggregated data and analysis of the findings across the scheme. These reports will be published on the City of Dublin FET College website.

In addition to the annual learner survey, focus groups are utilised to gain more in-depth insights into learners’ experiences in City of Dublin FET College’s FET provision. Over the coming years, the Learner Supports and Engagement Service will develop and implement a learner-voice framework across the scheme.

Annual Learner Survey

Learner Support Newsletters