Free Green Youth Employment Training

Young Irish job seekers are now being offered the opportunity to up-skill for emerging environmental job opportunities through a free ECO-UNESCO initiative called Green Skills.

ECO-UNESCO, the country’s leading environmental education and youth organisation, will deliver the Green Skill programmes beginning on July 10th 2017 in Bray Co Wicklow. The aim of this innovative programme is to provide young people, aged 16-26, with the opportunity to gain a QQI qualification, new skills and undertake a valuable 5 week work placement to support them on to paid employment.

The ten week course builds on the success of the organisation’s Green Youth Employability programmes which have been running in Dublin since 2013 and Galway 2015. It offers a wealth of knowledge and supports including a QQI Level 5 in Sustainable Development or a QQI Level 3 in ECO Community Development, one-to-one mentoring, outdoor education through field trips, a growing vegetables element, support for CV and interview preparation, and makes use of ECO-UNESCO’s business networks to place each person in a work placement that is genuinely valuable to them.

Commenting on the initiative, ECO-UNESCO’s National Director Elaine Nevin said, “We’re looking forward to not only training people for this growing sector, but also to providing them with the confidence, cutting-edge skills and work experience that will really put them ahead of the pack in potential employer’s eyes.”  

The programme prides itself on being as open as possible to a diversity of backgrounds including refugees, young people engaged with probation service, LGBTQAI+, lone parents, members of the travelling community, those in long term homeless accommodation, those looking at returning to education, those looking for a new challenge, and those looking to enter the workforce in the green sector in order to progress their career.

For more Green Skills information or to book a place contact Triona Reid at 01 662 5491/ 086 159 1946, email [email protected], or visit the ECO- UNESCO website.