Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board’s Moyross Youth Academy and College of Further Education and Training (FET) Green Innovation Campus recently welcomed 19 painting and carpentry trainees and five teachers from the Traunstein district of Southeastern Bavaria to Ireland. The group spent a week experiencing the Further Education and Training provision in Limerick and the Irish culture as part of their Erasmus programme, which supports education, training, youth and sport throughout Europe. The learners from the Berufsschule der Jugendsiedlung education centre, had a full and busy itinerary during their time in the region, which was created by management and staff across both campuses.
First up on the visit the group got hands-on experience of the many aspects of the construction industry, including a class in wood turning at the Moyross Youth Academy campus with instructor Pat Lynch. The group were excited to get stuck in and were enthusiastic about producing a selection of handmade items including yo-yos, egg cups and miniature whiskey tumblers. Instructor David O’Flynn also introduced the group to paving at the campus and said they showed great promise by producing an impressive piece of paving work on the day.
Next up was a visit to the Green Innovation Campus in Roxboro in Limerick, where the learners were under the guidance of Instructor Ger O’Flynn who showed them the fundamentals of block-laying. After their lesson, Ger gave the group the opportunity put their new found knowledge and skills into laying blocks and instructor Cathal McNicholas also gave them a practical lesson in the latest innovations in External Wall Insulation.
During their time in Ireland the group also enjoyed a tour of the historic Adrnacrusha Hydro-Electric Power station in East Clare where they learned about the early and important links that this ground-breaking project had with their native Germany. Afterwards, Sisk project manager, Gerard Coleman, led the group on a tour around the 3.7 acre Opera site development in the heart of Limerick city. Here they got great insight into how a large scale construction site is organised within an extensive development like the Opera site, which is the largest city centre build project ever undertaken in Ireland outside of Dublin. Other cultural highlights of the visit included a cliff walk in Kilkee, West Clare and the Lough Derg Millennium Cross walk in County Tipperary, led by mountain guide Cathal McNicholas before enjoying a well-earned rest in Flanagan’s on the Lake in Ballina afterwards.
Speaking about the learners experience during the visit the learners group leader Thomas Mayr said “Both tours were extremely interesting and inspiring for our apprentices. Our trainees learned a lot about Irish craftsmanship on this visit, they laid pavements and learned about walls with a thermal insulation composite system and worked on the lathe and it has been an innovative and enriching experience for the group. A very big thank you goes to our partner, Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board, who once again made an enormous effort and invested a lot of time and energy to be able to offer us a wonderful varied program and the feedback from our learners has been excellent with many saying it was the best trip they were ever on.”
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