Kerry Education and Training Board

2021

Agreed Key Dates

25 June 2021 – Submission of the Provider Self-Evaluation Report
27 September 2021 – Reviewer Briefing
1 October 2021 – Training Session
7 October 2021 – Planning Visit
29 November to 3 December 2021 – Main Review Visit of Kerry ETB to take place virtually
Publication of the review report – TBC

Review Documentation

Terms of Reference

Provider Profile

Self-Evaluation Report

Handbook for the Review

Final Report

Follow Up Actions

Action Plan
Follow-up Report

Review Team

	Chair Michael Cross is a former career civil servant with extensive experience of food and farming policy development at UK Government level; in the same context, Michael is an experienced negotiator in Europe at both EU and Council of Europe levels and at bilateral level with other administrations. In Scotland, Michael was the lead senior civil servant establishing Scotland’s first all-age information, advice and guidance body; policy development and implementation of Scotland’s strategy for youth entrepreneurship (Determined to Succeed); and the development and delivery of ‘More Choices. More Chances.’, Scottish Ministers’ strategy for tackling unemployment among 16–24-year-olds. Subsequently, Michael was lead senior civil servant supporting Scottish Ministers in a profound programme of post-16 education reform over 2011 – 2014 (Putting Learners at the Centre), including the regionalisation of Scotland’s colleges and the introduction of outcome agreements. Latterly, Michael was Director at the Scottish Funding Council managing relationships with all of Scotland’s colleges and universities, with a particular focus on outcome agreement development, alignment of skills provision with labour market need, and pursuing the First Minister’s commitment to improve access to university for those from Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities. Currently, Michael is senior policy adviser to the Principal at City of Glasgow College, including supporting drafting of the Cumberford-Little Report on the economic impact of Scotland’s colleges.
	Coordinating Reviewer Caitríona Ruane has over 8 years’ experience of working in human rights in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Colombia and as a human rights worker in the North of Ireland. Caitríona was Director/CEO of Féile an Phobail – West Belfast 1996 - 2001. Caitríona was Minister of Education in the 2007 – 2011 Stormont Executive led by Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley. She led necessary reform of the education system with a strong focus on equality and excellence for all. She introduced a new curriculum, a new school building programme, a literacy and numeracy policy, established a Traveller Educational Taskforce, a review of Irish Medium Education and expansion plan, and a newcomer policy for children with English as an additional language. She was Deputy Ceann Comhairle of the Assembly in Stormont, Founder and Chair of the Women’s Caucus in the Assembly, and stepped down after representing the people of South Down for four terms. Caitríona has worked with the Simon Community in a homeless hostel in a border town for three years, and within Aontas Adult Education Programme. She teaches conflict resolution and negotiations to undergraduate and master’s students in Maynooth University. More recently, she has been working with Mayo North-East Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme supporting charities in very remote areas, including Gaeltacht areas, in their journey to comply with the Charity Regulatory Authority Governance Code. Caitríona is a mother of two daughters, and Mamó to three gorgeous grandchildren and in her spare time, she keeps hens and grows her own vegetables.
	Charlie Gorney's educational journey started out in art and design and then moved into computing and technology, after completing a Master's in Computing and Design with the University of Ulster. A career in education followed, allowing him to undertake fulfilling roles that have given him many opportunities to work with a diverse range of stakeholders within the Further Education and Training sector. He is a strong believer in lifelong learning for all and, within his current role as Adult Education Officer in Donegal ETB, he has had opportunity to see the benefits of this inclusive approach first- hand. In his spare time Charlie plays keyboards in a rock and blues band and loves a good jam!
	Charlie Boyle is a consultant in the area of customer service, customer experience and sales. In particular, he has a particular interest in the ‘experience economy’ and how consumers now seek overall better experiences over price or, indeed, product. Charlie works mainly in the private sector, partnering with companies across many sectors in supporting their continuous improvement in customer experience and sales, and is involved in the National Apprenticeships in Retail Supervision as well as Sales. He has contributed to several ‘future skills required’ reports.
	Emer McMullin is from Donegal and has been employed in the banking sector for 28 years and has enjoyed many customer-facing roles over this time. Due to the ever-changing landscape in this sector and the threat of job losses, Emer knew that if she were to seek new employment, she would need further qualifications to help with this, as her qualifications were all banking related. Emer called Donegal ETB who put her in contact with its RPL Co Ordinator and Adult Ed Officer who invested so much time in speaking with her and guiding her as to the next steps in her education progression. Emer then embarked in the Level 6 Major Award in Administration. This process was perfect for her as it gave her the recognition for all the experience she had built up through her career. Emer then used her initiative and enticed many of her colleagues to join the RPL process and she loves assisting them in any way she can. Emer hopes to build on this area of coaching/mentoring, and she fully believes the RPL process ignited that passion in her. Emer is very excited to be given this opportunity to be part of this review and is looking forward to the experience immensely.
	Aleksandra Grašič is employed at the National Institute for VET in Slovenia as coordinator of national reference point for VET in EQAVET network. Rooted in psychology, she has been active in the world of education from the beginning of her career. She started as professor of psychology in high school, was manager in a private educational company later on, and has become a senior advisor for VET on a national level in recent years. She is author of different publications, articles and evaluation reports on self-evaluation, teamwork, leadership, quality assurance and quality development in VET.