Tallaght among top winners for social innovation fund

Tallaght among top winners for social innovation fund

By Brittany King

AN COSÁN and Fast Track Academy were two of ten winners to receive an award from the Social Innovation Fund Ireland (SIFI)’s Education Fund on Tuesday, October 24 at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin.

The fund, worth €7 million, is one of the most significant investments of private philanthropy in programmes that tackle educational disadvantage.

An Cosan Award

Richard Bruton, Minister for Education and Skills, said: “Some of the initiatives we see here today, show real innovation in tackling some of the challenges we face in education, particularly in the area of breaking down cycles of disadvantage.”

An Cosán Virtual Community College (VCC) developed an innovative model of higher education aimed at isolated and disadvantaged communities by offering a blended model of online learning, including live online classes, face-to-face workshops, mentoring, and online resources. It allows the learner to set their own pace.

Fast Track Academy is the collaborative project between IT Tallaght and Citywise Education that helps young people reach third level education by providing after-school teaching support, supervised study, mentoring and summer school programmes. The Fast Track Academy has extended the reach of its programme to support even more young people in the Tallaght area.

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