*Pictured at the official opening were from left Professor Vincent Cunnane, LIT President, Minister Pat Breen TD, Acting Mayor of Clare Claire Colleran Molloy, Tony Brazil , Chairman Governing Body LIT and Liam Conneally , Director of Services Clare County Council. Photograph by Eamon Ward 

A “progression agreement” has been signed between Ennis College of Further Education and Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) to allow seamless progression between the education providers.

President of LIT, Professor Vincent Cunnane outlined at the official opening of LIT’s Ennis campus details of the arrangement between the third level institute and Ennis College of Further Education.

“This quarter now has second level education with the Community College and the Coláiste, further education with ECFE with whom we’ve already signed a unique progression agreement with Brian O’Donoghue allowing people to progress seamlessly from the college to here into the higher education system in this campus”.

Cunnane continued, “It is part of a long standing relationship and a wide relationship with the LCETB which we hope to deepen and grow further as we progress our plans in Clare. The facilities are adding to the educational options available locally and at the same time enabling us as LIT to respond to the needs of business and industry in Clare. As those needs grow so too will our response, we have just short of 100 students here now and this will grow greatly, we have part-time programmes and we want to grow that and what we offer here, the number of students and we want this to be not just a day-time activity but a night-time activity bringing a lot to the local community.

He added, “Where people go to college, they tend to put down roots, they stay, the people exiting out of Clare and Ennis may not come back, having a facility that can anchor them here means their professional development can continue here with their jobs and their life”.