This article is from page 18 of the 2012-09-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 18 JPG
THE current chief executive officer of County Limerick VEC will head up the new board that will take over the functions of Clare VEC.
Sean Burke has been named as CEO Designate of the new Education and Training Board for Clare and Limerick.
The new board will be an amalgamation of VECs in Clare, Limerick city and Limerick County.
The September meeting of Clare VEC heard that that the new Education and Training Boards (ETB) would be established in the early part of 2013.
The current CEO of Clare VEC, George O’Callaghan has been named CEO Designate of the new city of Cork and Cork county ETB.
Mr O’Callaghan, who has worked as CEO for seven years, said he is looking forward to his new role in Cork.
He said, “It will be a challenge. There will be a lot of work involved, amalgamating the new VECs, they are two fairly large VECs. It’s not going to happen for another six to eight months at the earliest so I’ll still be in Clare for that length of time.”
Mr O’Callaghan said he enjoyed his time working in Clare.
“It was fantastic. The staff are fantastic and the people here are great to work with. The committee have always given me great co-operation down the years.”
Implementing the 2001 Vocational Education Act, the growth in adult education and improvements to school facilities, are among the main changes Mr O’Callaghan has helped oversee during his time with Clare VEC.
He said, “All the schools have very modern facilities. That was part of our objective as well. We were very anxious to get that up and running and I’m very happy that we have got that done. We have achieved three major extensions for three of the schools in the county as well.”
Mr O’Callaghan will be leaving Clare VEC as it prepares to undergo major structural change. He believes the county will have a strong influ- ence on the new ETB.
He said, “The challenge for Clare will be to maintain what it has got. It’ll be a large part of the new entity as well. There are 110,000 people living in Clare. There are over 2,300 post primary school pupils in the VEC here and we have something like 4,000 to 5,000 adults here as well. It will make up quite a large part of the new entity as well. So it will have quite a large influence on the new entity as well.”