Self-Evaluation and Monitoring of Quality Assurance

Programmes are reviewed at the end-of-course evaluation at FET provision programme level. These reviews provide an opportunity to review teaching and learning, facilities and resources, assessment, and other aspects of course delivery.

Currently, courses are monitored at centre-level with mid-course and end-of-course evaluations. This allows issues to be identified quickly and to be acted upon and further supports to be put into place, should these be necessary. Internal Verification processes provide an opportunity to monitor the assessment processes, while the External Authentication and the Certification Approval Board (CAB) meetings provide opportunities for the monitoring of results and issues arising from that particular assessment period.

CAB reports are reviewed in collated form by the QASS and QA Governance groups, which facilitates the identification of long-term trends.

Self-Evaluation Report, QQI Review Report and Quality Action Plan

Following publication of the Inaugural Review report, and one year after the submission of its Quality Assurance (QA) review action plan, Donegal ETB has submitted a follow up report to QQI on progress against the plan, and how it is addressing the outcomes of the review. The report identifies the range of strategic and logistical developments and decisions that have occurred within Donegal ETB since the publication of the review report and addresses each of the key findings and recommendations that the reviewers presented.

Engagement with Stakeholders and Other Bodies

Community Collaboration

Donegal ETB engages extensively with community groups, Family Resource Centres, Pobal centres and Partnership Companies in the provision of non-accredited and accredited courses through the following programmes and services:

• Adult Literacy Service
• Back to Education Initiative (Community Strand)
• Community Education Support Service

Our grants-based Community Education Support Service ensures a “bottom-up” or “learner-led” approach in encouraging participation among learners who do not normally engage in educational activities.

Department of Social Protection (DSP) Collaboration

Donegal ETB meets regularly with DSP to ensure the needs of the county are being met and these meetings regularly inform provision.

Enterprise Engagement

The Enterprise Engagement Working Group has been established to build and maintain relationships with employers in the region and was seen as an engine to drive feedback from employers on the ETB’s programmes and services. It was created to dovetail also with the work being undertaken by the Regional Skills Forum. An important initiative that has been implemented arising from this relationship has been the launch of the ‘Employers portal’- https://www.donegaletb.ie/employers/ – on the ETB website, where employers can feed into the ETB thus creating key stakeholder engagement.

Traineeships: Donegal ETB have engaged extensively with the engineering, hospitality, fintech, textile, telecommunications, and blue economy/marine industries in the development of new traineeship programmes in these areas. These programmes are developed in collaboration with local employers to meet the demands of the skills supply in these areas while also giving the students the opportunity to complete work-based learning.

Atlantic Technological University

With the memorandum of understanding in place between the ATU (Atlantic Technological University) and the ETB, one of the key strategic focuses of this MOU is to build progression pathways to HE from the FET programmes and build closer linkages between both organisations. The ETB is currently working on analysis of various pathways to HE for entry from Level 5 and 6 programmes and to see how we can help to create more maps and paths into the ATU from the ETB.

National Collaborations

National collaborations and Quality Assurance sectoral projects coordinated by ETBI will help ETBs satisfy the comprehensive nature of the new Core and Sector Specific Guidelines, including a number of projects that will help form a framework for QA procedures initially in relation to Section 7 of the Core guidelines.

Awarding Bodies

Contractual relationships also exist with other awarding bodies and testing/assessment systems that are outside of the Irish jurisdiction. These include City & Guilds, ITEC, Microsoft, Pearson Vue, ERS and OFTEC.