Archives: 2015

Minister for Mentoring

This year’s annual Student Mentoring celebration took place in the House of Lords Room at Bank of Ireland, College Green. The Minister for Education, Jan O’Sullivan, TD, presented graduation certificates to the mentors and mentees who completed the Student Mentoring programme. Our Student Mentoring Programme strives to encourage students to stay in school, increase their self-esteem

Photo Captions – Schools’ Business Partnership E-zine September 2015

Photo captions from top to bottom and left to right: Jan O’Sullivan, Minister for Education & Skills, Tina Roche, CEO Business in the Community Ireland and Simon Lucas, Head of Region for Republic of Ireland Marks & Spencer, with students; Dylan Byrne, Ard Scoil la Salle, Raheny and Leanne Sarah Cuff from St. Dominic’s SS, Ballyfermot Students from St.

Photo Captions – Schools’ Business Partnership E-zine September 2015

Photo captions from top to bottom and left to right: Jan O’Sullivan, Minister for Education & Skills, Tina Roche, CEO Business in the Community Ireland and Simon Lucas, Head of Region for Republic of Ireland Marks & Spencer, with students; Dylan Byrne, Ard Scoil la Salle, Raheny and Leanne Sarah Cuff from St. Dominic’s SS, Ballyfermot Students from St.

Kerry County Council & Causeway Comprehensive School

Kerry County Council opens its doors to Chambers and provides students from Causeway Comprehensive School with a glimpse of working life in the Council. On a recent visit to Kerry County Council, fifth year students from Causeway CS sat in Council Chambers and gained insight into the many careers that exist within the organisation.  Kerry

There’s Plenty of Fish in the Sea…or Are There?

The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) share their knowledge with students of Colaiste Gleann Lí, Tralee. The SFPA established their first link with Business in the Community Ireland (BITCI) this year.  They partnered with Colaiste Gleann Lí, Tralee and pulled out all the stops to ensure the students enjoyed and learned from the programme.  Staff brought fresh

A ‘Day in the Life’ with Carbery Group & Maria Immaculata

Maria Immaculata students welcomed employees from Carbery Group to learn more about their careers and find out what a ‘Day in the Life’ entails in the working world. One of the students, Ellie Glynn, shares her experience of the visit: Four employees from Carbery Group recently came to my school, Maria Immaculata Community College in West Cork,

Time to Read Testimonials

This year, we gathered some informal feedback which was kindly provided by volunteers, parents and children who took part in the Time to Read programme. The participants spoke about their experience of the programme. Their responses are the following: Quotes from our Volunteers: “The improvements in confidence, fluency and comprehension were clearly visible from the start

EDU.LOGIC Gives Donegal Teachers a Taste for Coding

Pramerica Systems Ireland and Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT) recently hosted a Management Excellence for Teachers event to help teachers from around the county improve their programming skills. The event, EDU.LOGIC, was intended to provide ICT teachers with the fundamentals of learning to code, and allow them to experience the relationship between hypothetical coding challenges and

Photo Captions – Time to Read E-zine March 2015

Photo captions from top to bottom and left to right: Cathal McCarthy from Gas Networks Ireland and boys from Scoil Mhuire Fatima, Cork catching up on the latest sports news A student from Scoil Aiséirí Chríost, Cork enjoying her reading session with a Karen Hilliard from Gas Networks Ireland All smiles for students & volunteers from Beaumont Boy’s School, Cork

Time to Read Steering Group Committee Members:

Dr. Eithne Kennedy | St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra Helen Coleman | Principal | St. Finian’s Primary School, Finglas Mary Kenny | National Coordinator | School Completion Programme Kristin Quinn | Corporate Responsibility Manager |  ESB Bevin Cody | Corporate Affairs |  ESB Maria Tobin | Home School Community Liaison | NEWB Emer O’Brien | Representing the Library Association of

Top Irish Companies Share Their Experiences…

Caroline O’Connor | Corporate Responsibility Manager | Gas Networks Ireland “24 Companies from around Ireland are currently involved in the Time to Read programme. We asked a selection of employees and managers from some of the 24 companies involved in the programme to discuss their experiences.” “Time to Read addresses key elements of Ireland’s plan

A Principal’s Perspective

The Time to Read programme has seen a huge growth within the last year. One of our new partnerships, between the Insurance Institute of Ireland and St. Vincent’s GNS has been going from strength to strength. The principal, Margaret O’ Connor outlines her experience of the programme since its launch in September. “The Time to

Teacher’s Corner – St. Finian’s NS, Finglas & Irish Life

Interview with Niamh Scanlon, 2nd Class teacher in St Finian’s, which is partnered with Irish Life: How do you feel the programme has benefited your students? “The interest and excitement around reading is almost infectious. They now love going to the school library and choose their reading material with much thought and deliberation. They share

Friends First & Scoil Cholmcille JNS

Scoil Cholmchille JNS has been partnered with Friends First since September 2014. We asked two children (Noah & Alex) from Scoil Cholmchille along with their volunteer readers (Niamh Kennedy & Tom Browne, CEO) to answer a few questions about what Time to Read means for them. Noah did you like Time to Read? “Yeah, I

The ESB’s Time to Read Story

Kristin Quinn, Corporate Responsibility Lead, discusses the ESB’s support and involvement in the Time to Read initiative. The ESB is very pleased to be Business in the Community’s national partner for the Time to Read Initiative. Now in its second year, the partnership has grown from strength to strength with almost 50 company volunteers working

200th School Milestone Achieved by BITCI

On February 4th 2015, we launched our 200th partnership in the historic Aula Maxima Room of NUIG’s famed Quadrangle. The Schools’ Business Partnership programme has successfully partnered 200 schools across Ireland with companies to improve secondary level completion rates. Enterprise Rent-A-Car will partner Gairmscoil na bPiarsach, Ros Muc, through SBP’s Skills @ Work programme. Speaking at the

Procter & Gamble – MET Session on Wellness

The work place is one of the main stress inducers for most people and many employers are now providing their staff with training and tools on how to look after themselves and deal with the whole stress issue, it’s all about ‘wellness’. Schools are no different and can be very stressful places for both teachers

Innovation – Management Excellence for Teachers

Our Management Excellence for Teachers Programme aims to harvest the knowledge, skills and expertise of Ireland’s visionary business leaders by facilitating them in providing personal or professional development to whole school staffs. The programme creates the space for Ireland’s top businesses to share company and staff skills through workshops with a school staff on topics

Three Joins The Schools’ Business Partnership

Three Ireland is pleased to announce its partnership with St. Joseph’s CBS in Fairview through The Schools Business Partnership programme. Already 24 employees have volunteered to deliver the Skills @ Work programme between January and March 2015. With three of the four sessions completed, the 36 students will now visit the Three offices on Sir

Allianz Expands Student Mentoring Programme

Allianz Worldwide Care has been involved in the Schools’ Business Partnership since 2007 and has worked with St. Dominic’s SS, Ballyfermot which is an all-girls school on both the Skills @ Work and the Mentoring programmes. The mentoring programme with St. Dominic’s has been a great success and Allianz Worldwide Care very much wanted to give the opportunity

Happy Ending to Lionbridge’s Time to Read Story

In February, the Western People, a regional newspaper in Mayo, featured the Time to Read partnership between Lionbridge Technologies and Scoil Íosa, Ballina. Representatives from the newspaper went along to the workplace visit in the Emmet St premises where students from Scoil Íosa were invited to visit their volunteer readers at work. The workplace visit

Saving Lives in Galway with Alere

Life size photos of customers on the walls are the first thing you notice when you walk into the offices of Alere International Ltd based in Parkmore East, Business Park, Ballybrit, Co. Galway. The powerful message of the Galway office values “Focused”, “Open” and “Bright ” are visible in all areas of the office and

Ericsson Ireland host Seeing Is Believing event to support local STEM teachers

Ericsson Ireland hosted a Seeing Is Believing event in their Athlone Software Campus for 15 science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) teachers and career guidance counsellors from the midlands region to create a greater awareness of STEM careers that exist for students. Seeing Is Believing is a new BITCI initiative which also supports ‘Smart Futures’, a