Later this year, Cork, in Ireland, will host the third International Conference on Learning Cities. Here, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Des Cahill, a great advocate for learning outside the formal education system, describes the impact community learning is having on his city
Community learning and the recognition of learning spaces outside the formal school system is at the heart of our learning city development. Our flagship initiatives include our very successful Lifelong Learning Festival and the Learning Neighbourhoods programme, which aims to localise learning city developments. The 2017 festival, which took place at the start of April, involved more than 600 local education providers of all kinds opening their doors to give people a taste of the learning opportunities available to them in the city.
Community Education is at the heart of the festival. It offers alternative pathways to people and supports them in fulfilling their learning needs. It not only changes individual lives, but is also an important contributor to the development of the city as a whole.
One example of this is Noreen O’Regan. Noreen is an extraordinary learner who has gone from being an early school leaver to leading learning in her community. Noreen attended school from the age of five to 15, when she left to work in a factory. She was married shortly afterwards and had a family, becoming mother to six children. As with many early school leavers, her experience of education might have ended at 15. Increasingly, though, there is recognition within Cork that this need not be the case, and Noreen took advantage of the availability of community learning in the city to continue her learning story.
Her first step back into education, taken when her youngest child started school, was a flower-arranging class. From there, she took a secretarial course, a diploma in community-based guidance and support, and a graphic art and design course, as well as a number of non-accredited training courses. She overcame another major barrier to formal education when she was accepted onto a degree course in Community Education and Development at Cork Institute of Technology. In 2005 she received her honours degree – a remarkable achievement for someone who left school at 15.
She now leads a Community Development Project and is a passionate advocate and supporter of people from backgrounds similar to hers who want to find a way back into education and employment. Who is better-placed to do this than someone who has been on this journey themselves? Having overcome the challenges involved in returning to education, Noreen knows how important encouragement and support are in enabling people to take their first steps into learning.
Her story shows how, by enabling and supporting a citizen to return to education, the city empowers someone to be a leader of change within their community.
