Mariane Foley has been out of the paid workforce for almost 15 years. Her two children, now aged 13 and 10, are rapidly developing their independence and Mariane Foley felt she no longer needed to be at home for them full-time.

"The children are growing up fast and getting on with their own lives - and I'm not ready for the rubbish tip yet," she says.

"I've reached the stage where I have the time to do something outside the home and I feel I still have plenty to offer a prospective employer. When you're at home and rearing a family you are always giving. What you want and how you feel about yourself tends to get put on the back burner. "Now with the children getting older I was anxious to do something for myself that would get me back into the outside world."

The Foleys live about 13 miles from Cork city and Mariane is commuting to Fermoy each day to take part in a back-to-work course. This is a 20-week programme and includes a four-week job placement. Although Mariane Foley has not been working for pay outside the home, she has been very active within her community council, she is chairperson of the local school's parents' association and she is also involved as a facilitator on parenting programmes in her region.

"I've kept busy certainly," she says, "and I've enjoyed my involvement with the various groups, but I'd quite like a job that would give me some financial reward at this stage of my life. "I think I'm quite good at interacting with people and while it's a bit early to say what will eventually come out of the course for me, I would be happy to work in a people-type job such as reception or customer care.

"I realise that I have to be realistic about my job expectations given my length of time away from a commercial environment, but you have to start somewhere and I must say the course has been exactly what I needed to get me going. "It's really terrific and the best thing I've done in a long time."

Margaret Murphy from Dublin is a graduate of the Cabra return-to-work programme. Her four children range in age from 7 to 14, and she was prompted to begin the course last May because she found her part-time ironing job in a local nursing home "a dead end with no job satisfaction".

Because she had a part-time job, Margaret Murphy had to fight hard to be allowed on the course in the first place. "They didn't want to accept me because I had a job and the course was meant to be for people who were completely unemployed," she says. "But I felt this was unacceptable given the sort of job I was doing, and I eventually convinced them to give me the opportunity to go on the course.

"I was determined about this, because I really felt I had to get to grips with computers in particular. Shops, schools, hospitals, banks - everything we do these days seems to have contact with computers in some form and I felt it was important to be familiar with how they worked."

Margaret did her work experience in a hospital. Although, she says, she did not have great confidence in her abilities, her boss did: when her placement was up she was offered a part-time job in the maintenance department. She now works mornings and the hospital is sending her on a computer-training course to further develop her skills.

"I must say I love the job and I love working in a hospital," she says. "I think hospital work suits older women because you've a lot of skills and life experience if you've been rearing kids and dealing with all that goes with it. Most of the women on the course with me were very lacking in self-confidence and I think we really benefited from the personal development side of the course."

Tom Simpson, a course instructor at the Cabra training centre, says the return-to-work courses are open to men as well as women. "For some reason we don't get applications from men. All of our courses tend to be attended by women only, but men are welcome," he stresses.

"We find that a lot of employers want to employ more mature staff because they have a bit of cop-on and they are normally very reliable," he adds. "Mature women who have been at home with their families get very good at handling people. They tend to be diplomatic and good at conflict-resolution, and employers appreciate this ability. "The thing is, women often don't realise they have these skills. Giving them the confidence to recognise them and to move forward in whatever way they want is an essential part of the return-to-work course.

"As part of the course we also teach basic typing and computer skills, we look at job-seeking skills and interview skills and there is a lot of emphasis on confidence-building and personal development. Access to information and knowing where to find it is also an important factor in empowering people, so we look at that too," Simpson explains.

Elaine Duffy completed her return-to-work course in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, five years ago. A former bank official who had to retire from her job because of the marriage ban, she says the course gave her the confidence to go back into the workplace, having spent more than 20 years at home rearing her four children.

"I had been talking about doing something a bit half-heartedly," she says. "Then a friend of mine told me about the course and badgered me into applying. I was sure they would never accept me because I'd been at home for so long, but sure enough they did - and I must say it was fantastic and exactly what I needed. "When I left the bank, women were just beginning to come to the fore and were going out front on cash for the first time. But my experience had been very much in the background and I didn't feel I'd have the confidence to work out front.

"I think the assertiveness and personal-development training on the course helped me overcome my reservations and I feel the course was a complete rebirth for me. It was structured so that as we went along I could feel my confidence in my ability to cope in a job situation growing," Duffy says.

"I could type, so at least I had my keyboard skills to bring to the computer-training part of the course. This was very helpful, though I must say I found the whole prospect of dealing with computers overwhelming. But there was great support both from the FAS tutors and from the other women in the group - everybody knuckled down and learned what they had to. "People were very helpful and supportive to each other and strong friendships were made. Even after five years we still have regular get-togethers."

She now works part-time with National Irish Bank in Letterkenny. "I love the job," she says. "It's a very busy branch with lots of coming and going and I love the buzz and all the activity. Only for the return-to-work course I would not be here."