There were two big stories this week that caught the attention of the nation — one an enormous success story and the other a tale of woe for many who were hoping to have received their new qualification...
Firstly to the good news. The scenes from the Chilean mines were heart wrenching, when each and every miner was raised from 2,050 foot of hard rock in a metal capsule especially designed for the rescue operation.
Eye witnesses were in floods of tears as they waited for their loved ones to be raised from the shaft and released back into the world. It was mesmerising television. And the scenes of the miners being reunited with their families and friends will not be forgotten for a long time to come.
There is also an Irish link to the story and that is that the drill bit, used to penetrate the rock to access the men was in fact made in Shannon in County Clare! There have been many jokes to date about the government maybe using one of these special drill pieces to ‘dig the country out of the hole that it is in’! But if only it were that simple!
Back to Kilkenny and we continue to hear about the students and tutors affected by the sudden closure of Empower Training. We led with this story two weeks ago today and it is only now that this story is getting the attention it deserves.
Hundreds of people are affected. We are hearing stories since of many students who had been put to the pin of their collars to pay for their training, but they did it to better themselves and to be better placed in the current economy for employment opportunities.
We have also been hearing from tutors and teachers who have been left without months of pay and now ultimately without a job, with no prior notice from Stephen Doran the owner of the company.
Their Facebook page is inundated with messages to the couple from teachers and students begging for answers. Stephen Doran offered excuses to some of the writers — none of which were accepted by the complainants. Questions are being asked as to why, if everything is above board as they claim, have they gone overseas? These questions may never be answered but questions that do need to be answered should be directed at FETAC the Statutory accreditation body who had been made aware of concerns about the quality of training at the centre almost 12 months ago. Nothing was done to investigate these concerns until recently and the training centre was not obliged to stop enrolling until one week ago although there were serious allegations being investigated into misconduct at the centre. People only got wind of this through the Kilkenny Advertiser front page story and many people were still planning on handing over their hard-earned cash until they read the report. Thankfully, many stopped payment and began to ask questions at this point and as Stephen Doran said in an email to the Kilkenny Advertiser this week, “If your article had not named my company about unfounded allegations and FETAC had not been bullied into suspending us we would have been able to continue for the foreseeable future.”
Mmmm pretty frightening that this could have happened if we hadn’t given the story some exposure.
At this point all we can hope for is that those who have completed their courses will receive their accreditation and that those who have paid will be able to take their course elsewhere. There are no winners in this situation. But if wrong-doing is proven, the price will need to be paid for all those that have been left with nothing.
