Providing a Bridge to your Future Employment

Everyone wants a successful future. The difficulty often lies in knowing what steps to take to start on your road to success.  We at the College of Further Education Dundrum provide a bridge from where you are now to where you want to be.  We are as excited about your future as you are and look forward to working with you to realise your goals, whatever they may be.

How CFE Can Get You There

The College is staffed by professional instructors who work with you to achieve your goals. We focus on each student as an individual.  With our support net of dedicated staff, there is little chance of anyone “slipping through the cracks”. At CFE Dundrum we see the student/tutor relationship as a team; your success is our success.

Due to our open and supportive approach to education the College has a long established reputation for producing first-class, well-trained students.  We are well-known to employers for our exceptional standards of training and development.  These positive links to the workforce allow us to maintain our first-rate service to our students. This results in the positive cycle of learning that we perpetuate year after year.

CFE Dundrum gives you:

§ Professional Courses

§ Job-related Skills

§ Enhanced Self-Esteem

§ Confidence in your Abilities

§ The opportunity to realise your potential

§ Social Interaction and Group Support among fellow students.

 

CFE Dundrum provides the bridge to your future employment; all you have to do is take that first step.

STUDENT SUPPORT STRUCTURES & SERVICES

The College has a support system in place to facilitate the smooth running of the course programmes. Course coordinators have overall responsibility for the administration of their respective department.

MENTORING SYSTEM

Success on a course in our College involves a commitment from the student to be actively involved in the learning process.  We invite each student into partnership with us in achieving this aim.  As an equal partner in the learning process we would expect commitment to practices pertaining to the work environment in terms of attendance, punctuality, work input, attitude, achievements and completion of tasks.

The College operates a mentoring system whereby a tutor is assigned to each student to help achieve the best success possible from the course. The course involves a high level of personal responsibility as the assessment process is based on research techniques, projects, assignments and presentations. The Mentor takes a direct personal interest in each individual student’s academic progress and will meet with the student regularly throughout the year to monitor progress or address any difficulties that may be causing the student concern in their studies.

College of Further Education students have free access to County Dublin VEC Psychological Support Service for the duration of their time in the College. The service is advertised on all notice boards.

ID CARDS are issued to all students.

MAINTENANCE GRANTS

The Department of Education & Science provides 3rd level maintenance grants for eligible students attending full-time Further Education courses in the College. The grants are paid through the VEC system and are means tested. Detailed information is available on www.studentfinance.ie

STUDENT CAFÉ

The College café is a bright, cheerful place where students can relax and enjoy hot food, tea, coffee, soup, sandwiches, scones etc. 

STUDENT COUNCIL AND COMMITTEES

The academic input and social aspect of being a student is not forgotten. Students elect a Student Council, from which members are appointed to the Board of Management.  Committees are also elected and they organise events throughout the year.  The “News Updates” keeps pace with College news and is available on the College website. 

FEES

There are no tuition fees for Irish and EU Nationals. However, a Government Levy, examination fees and a student contribution charge are payable. Students are notified of these charges on application. Non-EU nationals are charged the commercial rate fees set by the Irish Government.

MATURE STUDENTS:

Please visit www.studentfinances.ie for all information in relation to allowances and benefits.

The College of Further Education Dundrum welcomes mature students who wish to re-train in order to enhance their employment prospects.  Mature students are welcome on all courses. Vocational Opportunities Training Scheme (V.T.O.S.) places are available on all courses.

V.T.O.S. students continue to get their full Social Welfare entitlements as well as the cost of text books, exam fees etc., for the duration of the course. Meal and travel allowances are also paid. An additional allowance is paid to those who are more than one year on the live register.

Eligibility:          

To be eligible for the VTOS scheme a student must be:

§ At least 21 years of age

 and

§ Be in receipt of unemployment payments or signing on for credits for at least six months.

§ Places are also available to people in receipt of one-parent family payment, disability allowances or invalidity pensions and to spouses/ partners of people eligible to join VTOS.

BACK TO EDUCATION ALLOWANCE (B.T.E.A.)

The Back to Education Allowance is also available to qualified applicants. It allows people in receipt of certain social welfare payments to retain these payments while participating in approved full-time courses in further education. Information on this allowance can be found on www.studentfinance.ie.

CRÈCHE FACILITIES

The College has an excellent crèche facility on site. Pre-school children are cared for by a professional caring staff while parents attend their course.

CAR PARKING

No parking is available for students at the College so students are asked not to drive into the grounds of the College. Staff Parking Only

COMPUTER FACILITIES

The College is well served with eight networked computer rooms and these are constantly developed and upgraded to assist students in their training.  There is Internet access in all computer rooms and students are facilitated with a College Apps Account, which includes Docs, Email, Calendar and access to our Moodle services. All lecture rooms are equipped with audio-visual teaching aids.

E-LEARNING

The College uses Moodle as its on-line learning environment allowing course work to be accessed from College or from home. Through its many features such as forms, content management and assignments students are supported in their studies.

EMPLOYMENT & CAREER DEVELOPMENT

The College has established over the years an excellent reputation with employers for training and developing prospective staff. These links are well established and offer a first rate service to both student and employer.

·    Career notice boards in the College advertise job vacancies. These are also advertised on the College website and students are issued with a password to access this facility.

·    A work placement module is part of all courses and site visits are organised throughout the year to complement the programme of  study where appropriate.

A Careers Guidance Counsellor is available to students in the College for progression or careers advice. Talks are organised on job hunting, cv preparation and interview skills.

ADMISSION POLICY

The College is committed to the principle of equal access.  Admission to a particular course in the College is subject to:

1.   Places being available on the course

2.   Candidates meeting the entry requirement of the course

3.   That, in the professional judgement of the staff of the College following  an advisory meeting to offer guidance and to ensure course suitability, the candidate is considered likely to benefit from participation.

EXAMINATIONS

Eligibility to sit examinations is subject to satisfactory attendance and completion of tasks and projects within specified time.

COURSEWORK & PORTFOLIOS:

The details of the College Policy on assessment procedures are outlined in the Learner Handbook given to each student at Induction Day.

Projects for FETAC validation must be submitted to the relevant subject tutor on or before the deadline dates for submission of course work. Deadlines will be given on all assignment/projects briefs.

Before you submit any work you will be asked to sign an authentication statement confirming that the work is your own work. 

Coursework provides you with an opportunity to do some independent research into a topic. The research you will do will involve looking for information in published sources such as textbooks.

Using information from published sources (including the Internet) as the basis for your coursework is a great way to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of a subject, but you must take care how you use this material – you cannot copy it and claim it as your own work.

If you use the same wording as a published source, you must place quotation marks around the passage and state where it came from. This is called “referencing”.  You must make sure that you have detailed references for everything in your work which is not in your own words. A reference should show the name of the author, the year of publication and the page number. For example (Morrison, 2000, pg 29.)

For material taken from the Internet, your reference must show the precise web page, not the search engine used to locate it. This can be copied from the address line.

For example: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/16/sosteacher/history/49766.shtml)

You must also include a bibliography at the end of your work, which lists the full details of publications you have used to research your project.
For example: Morrison, A (2000) “Mary Queen of Scots”, London: Weston Press.

If you copy the words or ideas of others and don’t show your sources in references and a bibliography, you will be committing plagiarism – this is a violation of assessment regulations.

PENALTIES FOR VIOLATION OF REGULATIONS:

Where the College is of the opinion that any candidate has:

§ Violated any of the assessment regulations

§ Attempted to obtain a result to which the candidate is not entitled

§ Furnished incorrect information in relation to their candidature

§ Aided or attempted to aid another candidate

§ Obtained or attempted to obtain aid from another candidate

 

Such a candidate shall be liable to be:

§ Deprived of certification, marks for the module or to have such deduction made as the college deems appropriate.

§ Debarred from entering any of the assessments for such period as the College may determine.

COMPUTER ETHICS AND USAGE POLICY:

The College of Further Education Dundrum complies with the Data Protection Act.  All students are responsible for the correct use of our computer systems. That responsibility exists regardless of what security mechanisms are in place. All users of computing and information services at the College must adhere to the rules and policies of CFE Dundrum. All rights and privileges of all users should be protected. You are required to familiarise yourself with the complete College Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) which can be found online at www.cfedundrum.com.

Briefly, the AUP is summarised as follows:

1.   All usage of CFE Dundrum facilities must be consistent with the business of the college.

2.   Unacceptable uses of computer systems include accessing or storing information of an obscene or offensive manner, computer damage, harassment, unauthorized access, tampering with systems or programs, causing deterioration of system performance, invasion of privacy, copying licensed software and cracking passwords.

3.   You may not share your account.

4.   Keep your password secret, use a password that mixes characters with numbers and use a password you will remember.

5.   You are responsible for the security of your account.

6.   The College of Further Education Dundrum cannot be held responsible for the loss of student data.  It is your responsibility to take regular backups of your data such as exam projects/assignments stored on the computer or college network.

7.   Hard copies of projects/assignments submitted to tutors are strictly for assessment purposes only and will not be returned to the student.  It is suggested that you should take a copy of all information stored on CFE Dundrum computer systems before the end of the academic year.

The Systems Administrator at the College has the right to monitor the computer system. The systems administrator has the right to examine user files to diagnose system problems or investigate security breaches.

BROADBAND USAGE:

The college offers students full use of our 100Mb bandwidth Internet connection. We expect you to respect the needs of other Internet users and for this reason downloading of large movies or audio files is forbidden. Installation or use of bit torrent software or equivalent is not allowed either on college machines or your own laptop/computer device.

RECOGNITION AND ACCREDITATION:

All of the courses on offer in the College are validated by nationally and internationally recognised bodies.

All FETAC courses and awards come within the National Framework of Qualifications developed by the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI). The National Framework of Qualifications establishes an easily understood award system for all levels of education and training in the State.  It will benefit everyone involved, in particular employers, as it will provide a way of measuring and relating learning achievements and comparing educational and training awards.

 The Framework also makes it easier to compare awards with those of other countries.  This enables students to move easily between different education and training systems using their qualifications to gain employment in other countries.

The Framework consists of ten levels with each level based on specified standards of knowledge, skill and competence.  These standards define the outcomes to be achieved by learners seeking to gain awards at each level.  Progression routes are clearly outlined.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

The College, under the auspices of County Dublin VEC has a Quality Assurance system agreed by FETAC.  This ensures a better experience for learners providing for greater relevance and better progression and mobility opportunities.

 

PROGRESSION: