Sustainability Supports Success

Monday, May 22nd, 2023

The Junior Cycle is the first state exam undertaken by post-primary students and introduces the following as key skills: 

  • staying well 
  • managing myself
  • communicating 
  • being creative 
  • working with others 
  • managing information and thinking 

With the BITCI World of Work Programme, students are supported on these key skills in the 2nd year of their Junior Cycle journey.  The program consists of a range of topics including company overview, site visit, career talks, communication and presentation skills, teambuilding activities and sustainability insights. Students can see these identified skills in action in their partnering company and find their own confidence to present a closing wrap-up session.  

The World of Work programme has now concluded for the 2022-23 academic year, and all participants universally agreed that it was great to be back to ‘in-person’ sessions after a 2-year virtual program during the pandemic.  There were many highlights for the students, and our team reported on some inspiring events that took place around the country including planting wildflower seeds to launch a partnership, cooking and baking with chefs, designing apps for smart phones, experiencing a water rescue simulator, designing clothing, tours of laboratories, research & development locations and manufacturing areas in addition to tours of company offices in the services industry. Students met inspiring employees as well as enjoying excellent hospitality from their hosts with lunches and pizzas!  

Thanks to sponsorship from Gas Networks Ireland for developing resources in conjunction with our stakeholders, for the first year sustainability became an anchor session within the program. Some of the aims of this session are to:  

  • teach a basic understanding of the terms around sustainability   
  • inspire and develop an interest in this subject 
  • provide an insight into the partnering company’s sustainability activities  
  • deliver an interactive session that is engaging and fun  
  • give students a practical task/challenge to complete  
  • Provide a knowledge base for students considering studying the new Leaving Certificate subject of ‘Climate action and sustainable development’.  

To enhance students’ experience of the programme, BITCI in conjunction with Gas Networks Ireland held a national schools competition on the theme of ‘How can I make my world/school more sustainable?’ Students submitted entries by written report, a short video or PowerPoint presentation.  Although in it’s infancy, the quality of entries were very high and this competition is sure to become a staple in the World of Work programme in the years to come.    

Some of the entries showed students “doing it for themselves” by growing vegetables to supply the home economics room, organising a swop shop for the class, organising a beach clean-up with their partner business, reducing the use of energy within their school, installing and policing recycling bins and reducing the use of plastic water bottles.  It was difficult to select one winner from all the great ideas but the one that impressed the judges the most was the entry from Inver College, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.  The students selected the topic themselves and designed a campaign to remove single-use plastic in the form of water bottles from the school under the branding of ‘Water Agents’; you can see their entry here:  

Congratulations to the students of Scoil Uí Mhuiri who came second place with their competition entry with their partnering company AWS. Their project was a beach clean involving school and company volunteers and Clean Coasts.


Entries from 2nd year students on the World of Work programmes in these schools were also awarded a ‘Highly Commended’. 

  • Coláiste Cholmcille, Inverin, Co Galway 
  • Beech Hill College, Monaghan 
  • Castleblayney College, Castleblayney

Congratulations to all the students, their teachers and partner companies who got involved! The entries were a high quality and demonstrated real understanding of the topic, teamwork, critical and creative thinking and community action that spread the word of their activities. A huge thanks to everybody for supporting the programme and we look forward to working with you again in the 2023-24 academic year.  

By Kate Horton, BITCI