The south-eastern counties will shortly see the most intensive drive ever mounted to reopen educational, and thereby employment, opportunities to all categories of people who have missed out first time.
The EU-driven initiative will be announced at a major conference in the Waterford Institute of Technology on August 21st on the role of guidance in combatting social exclusion. The thrust of this new scheme, which is the Europroject for the region under the EU Integra programme, will be on personal development towards education.
"We'll be doing education guidance from the ground up," says Ms Mary White, who is setting up a central office in Waterford for the Regional Educational Guidance Service for Adults.
"The aim is to help people realise the skills and abilities they have. We will work with the VEC, WIT, local employment services, the Area Partnerships, Access 2000 everything that is there." Among the primary client targets for the new service will be lone parents, the unemployed and women who are not on the live register. It will network with the local services and develop a core data base on all the relevant resources in the State.
"A lot of groups are already giving ad-hoc guidance, but we hope to be a comprehensive core guidance centre and library, with others channelling in to us," says Ms White.
As well as guidance counselling on education for those without qualifications or experience, the new service will be able to advise people on the whole range of training opportunities available.
It will also identify and advocate such changes in national policy as it sees necessary to broaden the opportunities for the excluded. It has set up an office in the WIT satellite campus at the Good Shepherd Convent in Waterford, and outreach offices will be set up in regional centres such as Clonmel, Dungarvan and Enniscorthy.
Ms White is already accepting client contacts at (051) 302287.