The Westport Plaza Hotel, County Mayo – October 10th & 11th
| Day One: Thursday 10th October 2019 | ||
| Time | Event | Speaker |
| 9.00 – 9.20 | Registration | Tea/Coffee |
| 9.20 – 9.30 | Welcome | Gerard Griffin, VTOS National Co-ordinator |
| 9.30 – 9.45 | Key Note Address | Peter Egan, Director of FET, MSLETB |
| 9.45 – 11.15 | Reclaiming the Agenda for Lifelong Learning* | Dr Leo Casey, National College of Ireland (NCI) |
| 11.15 – 11.30 | Tea/Coffee | |
| 11.30 – 12.00 | Change Management: A personal reflective account | Dr Patricia Kennedy, VTOS Co-ordinator, LCETB |
| 12.00 – 13.00 | Election of Officers | AGM |
| 13.00 – 14.00 | Lunch | |
| 14.00 – 15.00 | European Staff Mobility for VTOS staff Opportunities | Elva Duggan/Denise Shannon, Leargas |
| 16.30 – 17.30 | Pensions and superannuation | Michael Gillespie, Assistant General Secretary (AGS), TUI |
| Day Two: Friday 11th October 2019 | ||
| 9.00 – 9.15 | Registration | |
| 9.15 – 9.30 | Welcome | Mary Brodie, Adult Education Officer, MSLETB |
| 9.30 – 10.30 | PR/ Digital Media/Social Media/Promotion for VTOS courses | Susan Mc Intaggart, Plunket College, CDETB |
| 10.00 – 11.15 | Open Forum**** | Chaired by Joyce Trimble, VTOS Co-ordinator, CDETB |
| 11.15 – 11.30 | Tea/Coffee | |
| 11.30 – 12.30 | Updates from SOLAS regarding VTOS | Andrew Brownlee, Executive Director Strategy and Knowledge, SOLAS |
| 12.30 – 13.30 | Self care for educators in VTOS** | Treasa Hannify, Compassion Fatigue Ireland (CFI) |
| 13.30- 13.45 | Showcase “Learner Voice” survey***** Learner Voice | NAVC Executive members Past VTOS students reflect on VTOS and it’s role in shaping their career paths |
| 13.45 | Close | Followed by lunch |
*Reclaiming the Agenda for Lifelong Learning
This session looks at contrasting conceptions of ‘lifelong learning’ and what these mean in practice for adult learning professionals. On the one hand, we find the prevailing economic perspective that regards lifelong learning as primarily oriented to provide skills for the labour market. In contrast, from an educator’s perspective, lifelong learning is seen as the on-going process of facilitating everyone to participate in society, to the fullest extent and for the entirety of the lifespan. The implications of these two perspectives on everyday policies and practice will be teased out and discussed.
** Self care for educators will look at workplace boundaries, self-care plans for educators, the signs/symptoms of compassion fatigue/burnout and provide VTOS Co-ordinators with at toolkit to aid resiliency in professional practice.
***Name of specific speaker from Indecon International Economic Consultants to be confirmed
**** The Open Forum is an opportunity for structured, formalised discussion and collegial support among VTOS Co-ordinators to share relevant information specific to the context of VTOS Co-ordinators. The VTOS National Co-ordinator will be present during the Open Forum and will take note of the main issues that emerge.
*****Celebrate the “Learner Story”
as captured via a qualitative survey of VTOS students organised by the NAVC in
2018.