Lalor, Kevin

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Technological University Dublin ARROW@TU Dublin Conference papers Social Sciences 2009 Audit of Social Care Student Numbers and Programme Providers in Ireland Kevin Lalor Technological University Dublin, kevin.lalor@tudublin.ie Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/aaschsslcon  Part of the Higher Education and Teaching Commons Recommended Citation Lalor, K. (2009). 'How many social care students does Ireland need? Audit of social care student numbers and programme providers in Ireland'. Paper presented at IASCE/IASCW Conference, Social care education and practice: Learning lessons together, Sligo, February 2009. This Conference Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Social Sciences at ARROW@TU Dublin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Conference papers by an authorized administrator of ARROW@TU Dublin. For more information, please contact yvonne.desmond@tudublin.ie, arrow.admin@tudublin.ie, brian.widdis@tudublin.ie. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License 1Audit of Social Care Student Numbers and Programme Providers in IrelandDr. Kevin Lalor, Dublin Institute of Technology24 March 2009IntroductionArising from concerns regarding the dramatic growth of Higher Education social care programme providers since 2002 and the increase in student intake nationwide, an audit of social care student numbers was undertaken between January and March 2009.  Draft findings were presented at the 1st Irish Association of Social Care Educators (IASCE)/Irish Association of Social Care Workers (IASCW) Conference in Sligo (25-26 February 2009).The figures below are the final tally from all 16 programme providers.Main findings In 2002, there were seven Social Care Programme Providers nationwide (Institutes of Technology in Athlone, Cork, Dublin, Sligo, Waterford; St. Patrick’s College, Carlow (now Carlow College); and the Open Training College).  Today, there are 16 Higher Education providers (listed in tables and charts below), and additional providers in the Further Education sector. These 16 providers presently have a total of 4198 registered students.  Of these, 1303will graduate with Level 7 or Level 8 professional social care qualifications in June 2009 (compared to approximately 500 graduates in 2002).   How many Social Care Workers are employed in Ireland?  An exact figure is not available.  The HSE ‘Health Service Personnel Census, September 2008’ recorded 3405 Social Care Workers in the HSE and HSE funded agencies (this excludes the private sector and agencies).The trade union impact guesstimates a total of 3000-5000 members who work as Social Care Workers.Finally, the Health and Social Care Professional Council guesstimates that some 8000 people will be eligible to register with the statutory Social Care Workers Registration Board when it is established.Conclusions & Recommendations A profession that employs between 5-8000 people cannot possibly absorb 1303graduates annually.  This growth is unsustainable and uncoordinated. We have inadequate First Destination Return (FDR) data on social care graduates (ie, data on graduate employment and/or further study 12 months after graduation) and no career path data. The Irish Association of Social Care Educators (IASCE) should lobby the HEA to reduce duplication of course provision.2 Reduced student intake should occur immediately, for September 2009.  Again, IASCE should lobby HEA on this matter.Table 1 Social Care Student Numbers 2008-2009, F/T Level 7 Students as of February 2009 Table 2 Social Care Student Numbers 2008-2009, P/T or WBL (Work-Based-Learning) Level 7 Students as of February 2009Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 TotalAIT 24 24 48Carlow College 19 19 38DIT 20 19 20 59GMIT 27 27IT Carlow 105 69 53 227IT Sligo 30 11 41IT Tralee 22 22OTC 122 127 110 359WIT 28 13 41IT Blanchardstown 11 18 19 48Total 910Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 TotalAIT 58 84 71 213Carlow College 63 65 63 191CIT 120 98 77 295DKIT 37 32 35 104IT Carlow 71 22 25 118IT Sligo 70 70 73 213IT Tralee 54 40 45 139WIT 158 49 97 304IT Blanchardstown 35 38 27 100Total 16773Table 3 Social Care Student Numbers 2008-2009, F/T Level 8 Students as of February 2009Table 4 P/T WBL Level 8 Students as of February 2009Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 (ab initio, ‘add on’ or ‘progression’)TotalAIT 52 56 45 51 204Carlow College 41 41CIT 47 47DIT 36 39 44 18 137DKIT 24 24IT Sligo 93 93IT Tralee 33 33LIT 96 82 54 49 281WIT 75 68 76 91 310IT Blanchardstown 55 35 34 31 155Total 1325Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 TotalAIT 71 71LIT 4NUIG 130 115 19 264Open Training College 23IT Tallaght 60 60Total 4224Table 5 Total Level 7 & 8 Social Care Students, as of February 2009Table 6 Total of Professionally Qualified (Level 7 and Level 8) graduates expected in June 2009WIT 523IT Tralee 194LIT 281AIT 536ITB 303DIT 196GMIT 27IT Tallaght 60Carlow College 270Open Training College 382IT Carlow (f/t) 118IT Carlow (p/t) 227DKIT 128CIT 342IT Sligo 347NUIG 264Total 4198WIT 163IT Tralee 56LIT 49AIT 200ITB 77DIT 82Open Training College 126IT Carlow (f/t) 25IT Carlow (p/t) 53Carlow College 123DKIT 59CIT 124IT Sligo 166Total 130350100200300400500600Total no. of L 7 & 8 Social Care Students Feb. 2009 (n=4198)AITWITOTCIT Carlow IT SligoCITITBLITCarlow CollegeNUIGDITIT TraleeDKITIT TallaghtGMIT020406080100120140160180200Total number of professionally qualified  (L7 & L8) graduates expected inJune 2009 (n=1303) AITIT SligoWITOTCCITCarlow CollegeDITIT Carlow (Wex)ITBDKITIT TraleeLIT613030200400600800100012001400Level 7 & 8 graduations, 2002-2006 (sourceFás) and 2009 (projected)200220032004200520062009, Projected

Audit of Social Care Student Numbers and Programme Providers in Ireland

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Audit of Social Care Student Numbers and Programme Providers in Ireland

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