Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 February 2022
184. Deputy Jennifer Whitmore asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will provide a progress report on the proposed three new centres of excellence being established in the Cork, Limerick and Clare and Mayo and Sligo Leitrim education and training boards due to be established by 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8735/22]
View answerThe WWETB National NZEB Training Centre is the first facility in Europe to offer a suite of trade-specific NZEB courses. On-site retrofit programmes are currently provided in Waterford Wexford ETB and Laois Offaly ETB including through Mount Lucas National Construction Training Centre. These training courses introduce participants to the legislative concepts required to meet the standards of NZEB in a flexible, responsive environment.
There are three Centres of Excellence being established in the Cork, Limerick Clare and Mayo Sligo Leitrim ETBs. The establishment of the centres has been delayed due to COVID-19 impacts on the ETBs and are now due to be in place by Quarter 4 2022.
The location of these three Centres are:
- Cork ETB: Fermoy, Co. Cork
- MSLETB: Collooney, Co. Sligo
- LCETB: TBC
There are 104 students enrolled on NZEB and retrofitting programmes across the existing centres to date in 2022. The majority of courses are three days in duration and are validated by City and Guilds. WWETB is continuing to develop their offering to meet the needs of the sector and are developing a blended model with 2 days online and one day in the training centre.
