Minister Foley welcomes the P-TECH Transition Year students Work Placement Showcase

Minister for Education Norma Foley TD congratulated the North East Inner City post-primary students who have completed their five-week P-TECH work experience placement.

A total of 118 P-TECH Transition Year students from Larkin Community College, St. Joseph’s Fairview and Marino College have spent the past five weeks on work experience placement across P-TECH Industry Partners, Cisco, Deloitte, IBM, Irish Life, Uisce Éireann, Virgin Media, and SAS. On Friday 22 March 2024 these students marked their achievements at the showcase event, held at the National College of Ireland, where they presented on their work and shared their experiences of the programme.

Some of the students also participated on a panel, hosted by Dr Niamh Shaw, Space Communicator, along with P-TECH students from fifth and sixth year, to discuss their P-TECH experiences.

Minister Foley said:

“The P-TECH placement is a fantastic opportunity for these students to develop new skills and knowledge in a real-world experience, working with the P-TECH Industry Partners to develop their projects. While working on these projects, the students are also building key transversal skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, decision making and confidence, and all in a fun environment. I would like to congratulate the P-TECH Transition Year students on the completion of their work placement and the showcasing of their fantastic projects. I hope that every student is extremely proud of the work they have achieved and their accomplishments over the last five weeks.”

Students worked on a wide range of projects including Digital Media, Data Analytics, Sustainability & Environmental, Digital Technology, Video Editing, Recruitment Campaign and Legal.

Speaking at the Showcase, students gave positive accounts of their experiences on work placement:

"Being part of P-TECH has been fun! We get to work with students from different schools and make so many new friends. We learn from each other every day. P-TECH means we all in this together, exploring new things and having fun while we learn on work placement." – Molly, a student at Marino College.

"Working on our project was great. We learned so much, like how to work together as a team, manage our time, and do research and design. I'm really proud of what we achieved together. Our solution could make a real difference for people living in remote areas if it ever went beyond our project idea." - Mario, a student at St. Joseph’s, Fairview.

“Just being myself and having a blast with everyone else. Whether we were working or just hanging out.” – Paula, a student at Larkin Community College