The glamorous world of horse-racing is built on the hard slog of the stable staff. A new education project aims to help such workers progress in the industry, writes Eileen Battersby

From the breeding of the genetically engineered masterpiece known as the thoroughbred horse, to the training of some of them as potential champions, horse- racing is a lottery as well as one of Ireland's most romantic and glamorous sports.

But ironically, while the breeders, owners and trainers rank among the nation's wealthy, the labour base that sustains the racing industry is traditionally poorly paid with limited job prospects.

An estimated 16,000 people work in the racing and breeding industry, and an experienced stable employee aged over 18 can expect to earn a minimum wage of €339 for a 39-hour week. The thoroughbred horse industry is worth more than €330 million a year to the Irish economy, according to a report in 2004 by Indecon International Economic Consultants, commissioned by Horse Racing Ireland.

Many of the stable lads and lasses riding out the champions of the future are also involved in the daily tending of champions of the present, having joined racing yards as unskilled 15-year-olds with little to offer initially other than low body weight and a love of horses. They have no educational qualifications and few job prospects, yet it is upon this invisible workforce that successful racing yards are established. Behind the triumphant jockey, trainers and owners on race day are the grooms who began work at 6am with the daily drudge of mucking-out and people such as the two Ukrainians and the Frenchman who recently died in a car crash at 4.30am, on their way to work in a Co Kildare yard.

It is undoubtedly an exciting job for a teenager or a twenty-something to be riding out great horses, but should an injury from a fall put an end to that, what happens then? The Wicklow/Kildare Learning@Work programme, one of the pilot schemes initiated by Dublin Employment Pact and funded by Fás and the Department of Education, is looking to the needs of early school-leavers who are employed yet have limited opportunities in the very industry they sustain.

According to Michael O'Brien, a former Army officer involved in training, with an interest in adult education and now manager of Wicklow/Kildare Learning@Work, it is important to persuade both employers and employees of the advantages of further education at work. To date, the scheme has been implemented at Kerry Foods in Shillelagh, Co Wicklow and at Jacob Fruitfield Food Group in Dublin, where its potential was immediately grasped by staff and management.

"The development of 'soft skills', such as communications and knowing how to use a computer, are very important and often overlooked, particularly if you've left school at 15 to begin work," O'Brien says. While people working in factories are conscious of the various steps that lead towards management positions, in something like racing or horticulture - where demanding physical labour is essential - they are less obvious, he says, and many employees may feel they don't need to consider training courses.

Having been based at the Curragh for part of his Army career, O'Brien was conscious of the specific needs of the racing industry. "A teenager or a 20-year-old working in the racing industry may be quite happy," he says. "They love the job, the horses, and they are confident that they know what to do. They feel they have all the skills they need and don't need further skills because, at that age, people don't tend to look to the future. But as they get older, they begin to realise that additional training or education would be a benefit - and that's where we are in a position to offer something."

O'Brien, who seems a sympathetic, concerned individual, agrees that it is not always easy to encourage people to return to education at a later stage.

"Some of them may have had bad experiences at school," he says. "We are trying to introduce them to education as adults, which is a very different thing. It is a very different approach, client- focused and in small groups." In other words, it is quite unlike the formal primary/secondary education system lodged in their memories.

"We want people to begin thinking about a life plan, and also the balance between work and life," says O'Brien.

The project also reflects a wider reality about a stressed modern society in which traditional social skills have become forgotten in the rush.

Racing trainers are aware of how important the behind-the-scenes employees are, and equally of the high turnover of workers. For all the appeal of horses, working with them is tough and physical, particularly during the dark winter months.

It took some persuasion, but four trainers did agree to release stable staff for three hours a week to take part in a pilot course, which began in March and continues until the end of this month, then resumes after the flat-racing season.

Wicklow/Kildare Learning@Work not only approached the trainers through the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, it also looked for support from the Irish Stable Staff Association and from the Racing Academy and Centre of Education (Race) at the Curragh, Co Kildare. Established in 1976, Race has contributed its share of top jockeys over the years, as well as a high proportion of trainees who have remained in the industry.

For Gillian Spencer (24), from Blanchardstown, Dublin, Wicklow/Kildare Learning@Work is a chance to move up a step. "I left school when I was 15 and came to Kildare to do the course at Race," she says. Her family had no involvement with horses and "I couldn't even ride when I started at Race. I'd never sat on a horse, but I loved the idea of working with horses".

After she finished the Race course, she drifted away and worked elsewhere, but then returned to racing - "I love horses, you can't stay away from them" - and has been riding out for the past four years. Spencer is unlikely to want to run a yard, but she is now seeing that there are further possibilities for her, and computers are no longer a mystery.

Her flatmate, Cathy Gannon, the 2004 Champion Apprentice Jockey (the first woman to hold that title), is also doing the course. She may be a trainer of the future.

Sitting around a table in the Race canteen are representatives of the elements that make up racing. One of them, Jim Kavanagh, of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association, who has been a trainer for 25 years, says that, for him, a yard is as good as its staff and as the horses it has in training. It was Kavanagh who persuaded trainers to take the Wicklow/Kildare course seriously. He describes the way morale soars when a horse is doing well and slumps when fortune takes a bad turn. He also knows about the high turnover in staff.

"You need the staff, good staff," he says. "People have to be motivated, and when they're motivated, they work well."

He seems to have retained something of the old romance about racing.

"Every year, it's the same," he says. "Every trainer will say: 'They're the best two-year-olds I've ever seen.' "

The Irish stable Staff Association proved crucial in encouraging its members to attend the course. Dan Kirwan, chief executive of the association and himself from a racing family, campaigned for the course. O'Brien and Kirwan talked to about 30 people, before selecting nine - five women , four men - to participate in the pilot scheme. Although the plan is to concentrate on 17- to 24-year-olds, this initial course includes two older participants.

One of them is Co Meath man Philip Carey, who looks every inch the former jockey he is, with winners over the jumps before he moved to the flat. Now 35, a father of two and a bit stiff when he walks, he is looking down the line with a view to managing a yard and knows the value of his newly acquired computer skills.

Also older than the other course participants is Jeff Byrne (33), from Carlow town, who left school - and home - at 16 to come to Race. On completing his training "19 yearsago now", he went to work for Dermot Weld and is still there, riding out and working in the yard as a stable lad. Lively and chatty, he says: "I love horses, they're amazing animals." Byrne, now a father of one, has travelled abroad with horses, as far as Australia.

"I've had to speak with the media about how horses are going and that," he says. "The course has helped build my confidence. I spend my evenings on the computer now." As for the future, "I'd like to be head stable lad - that's my aim".

Wicklow/Kildare Learning@Work: 087-2289534