A new STEM initiative at a Northern Ireland further education college will allow part-time students to earn back their tuition fees.
South Eastern Regional College has launched the scheme in response to government targets to increase access to STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects as well as community feedback.
Students can earn back their fees by successfully completing their course.
South Eastern Regional College (SERC) is offering the initiative for 18 part time courses to encourage more people to enrol on STEM courses, all of which have been determined as important for the future economy by the government.
Ken Webb, college principal and chief executive said: “As a college we are the delivery arm for the Programme for Government to ensure that more people take up STEM training. Equally though research has shown that money can be a barrier to learning so we’ve responded with this initiative to support our local community. Already 32% of our part-time enrolments are in STEM areas and we want to grow this.”
One success story for STEM is Nicolas Graham who was a graduate architect, but struggled to find work in the economic downturn. Nicolas retrained on a computing course at SERC in 2012 and is has now been successful in securing permanent employment as a software tester.
The initiative has been added to an existing range of financial incentives on offer for part time students including a 10% early bird discount in May and June, 75% discount for unemployed students and 50% off for those aged over 60.
Enrolment and application is now open for these courses which include HND Computing and Systems Development and HNC in Manufacturing Engineering. For full terms and conditions please visit www.serc.ac.uk
The government believes that a healthy science base and a supply of suitably trained STEM graduates are vital for the UK’s economic recovery. It believes STEM graduates will allow the country to address scientific problems and also provide high level numeracy and quantitative skills.
Schemes like SERC’s are a response to the fact that recruitment to some STEM subject areas continues to prove a major challenge. SERC’s initiative will help ensure that the UK is producing a sufficient supply of STEM graduates to meet all its needs.