Westmeath County Council is calling on Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe to ensure funding is made available for the upskilling of the county’s adults.
The education levels of over 20,000 adults in the county need to be raised, according to Westmeath VEC’s adult education officer, Rina McKenna, who presented some alarming statistics to councillors this week.
According to the report, of the 49,619 persons who left school in Westmeath during the 10 years, 20,616 have Junior Cert or lower level of education. Of these 9,666, or 19.5 per cent of the population, either have no formal education or primary education only.
Ms McKenna’s report outlined the effect of Westmeath’s increased population on the levels of skilled versus unskilled workers in the county.
The population of Co Westmeath increased by 25.3 per cent between 1996 and 2006, with Kinnegad’s population growing by an astonishing 265 per cent during this time.
The most recent figures for Westmeath show that 18.4 per cent of workers were classed as semiskilled or unskilled in 2006. The percentage of semiskilled or unskilled workers in the workforce is particularly high in the Athlone West urban area and in Castlepollard, with figures of 28.7 and 27.7 per cent respectively. Meanwhile the areas outside of the major towns of Athlone and Mullingar, such as Glasson, Moydrum, and Belvedere boast the lowest levels of semiskilled or unskilled workers. Similarly, these areas were identified as the most affluent in the county in the most recent census in 2006.
One area that needs to be examined, according to Ms McKenna, is the percentage of private households which have computers. Overall in Westmeath 43.3 per cent of homes do not have a PC, with the figure reaching over 60 per cent in Athlone. Ms McKenna explained that there was significant work to be done to ensure that Westmeath’s workforce became computer-literate.
The report also highlighted the recent live register figures, which indicate that unemployment has increased by 59 per cent between October 2007 and October 2008.
Commenting on the findings, Cllr Mick Dollard said that the report made the most compelling read in his 17 years as a member of Westmeath VEC, and that it clearly indicated what needed to be done. He proposed the council write to Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe to ensure funding is made available to increase literacy and numeracy levels and the numbers of people completing levels 3,4, and 5, a call which was seconded by Cllr Robert Troy.
Cllr Kieran Molloy added; “I don’t mind going to see the Minister to secure more funding...People should never stop being trained and further educated.”
Paying tribute to the work done by Ms McKenna and Westmeath VEC, Cllr Dan McCarthy pointed out that with 6,500 people currently undertaking adult education programmes, Westmeath has more adult students per head of population than any other county. “The committee is very proud of the work done by Rina and her staff in Athlone, Mullingar, and Delvin, and it is hoped to start a programme in Kilbeggan. This report is in many ways sad as it is based on funding,” he said.
Westmeath VEC provides part-time adult education programmes in 28 locations across the county. As a result of the recent Budget, there has been a 4 per cent payroll cut, and a 10 per cent cut in places for Traveller education centres.
Positive news has been received, however, that approval has been granted for a new VEC centre in Kilbeggan, which will cater predominantly for Youthreach programmes but will also be used for literacy, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL ), and IT training.
