Teagasc Receives FETAC Parchment

Minister Awards Quality Agreement to Teagasc as a Public and Private Provider in Further Education Teagasc - the Agriculture and Food Development Authority - was one of 17 public and private providers of further education and training to receive a parchment to recognise having agreed their quality assurance systems with FETAC.

In line with the vision of FETAC, all course providers of further education and training must meet their quality assurance guidelines by the end of 2006 in order to present FETAC Awards.

Presenting the specially commissioned parchment to Mr. Donal Carey, Head of the Teagasc Education and Development Directorate, Minister of Sate at the Department of Enterprise and Employment, Tony Killeen TD praised FETAC and providers involved in these quality presentations, "The Government has been following developments on qualifications, accreditation and awards with interest. Here the work of FETAC and HETAC is in many ways of a pioneering nature. We are ahead of others in the European Union and, accordingly, will be able to accommodate more easily to moves towards greater comparability of qualifications that the European Commission is now advancing," he said.

Stan McHugh, Chief Executive of FETAC speaking at the presentation of parchments said, "Today we celebrate quality; we celebrate quality in providers: we celebrate quality in systems and most of all we celebrate quality in the relationships between providers, awarding authorities and ultimately the most important person in the equation, the learner".

In response Donal Carey said, "This is a milestone for Teagasc in the strategic development of our further education and continued learning progress in Teagasc."

These first presentations give tangible evidence to the progress being made by FETAC with the ultimate goal of publishing a new FETAC Awards Directory in January 2006 encompassing all quality assured awards, classifications and levels.

Pictured at the presentation of Quality Assurance Agreement Parchment to Teagasc are L to R: Mr. Stan McHugh, Chief Executive Officer, FETAC; Mr. Tony Killeen, TD, Minister for Labour Affairs; Mr. Donal Carey, Director of Education and Development, Teagasc and Prof. Joyce O'Connor, Chair. FETAC.