The Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB) has addressed the needs of a working-class community and its thriving local industry while continuing to expand and evolve, reports Áine Kerr.

At the intersection of the N3 and the M50 corridor, Ireland has its own version of Silicon Valley. Central to the hub of activity and developments of the business park is the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB) which has brought new energy, new aspirations and new challenges to Dublin 15 and beyond.

At the official opening of the ITB in 1999, the then minister for education, Micheál Martin, set the college the "very ambitious target" of having 30 per cent of its intake from mature and "second chance" students in the first five years of its existence.

In the years preceding the minister's projection for ITB, the number of jobs created by the IDA-supported firms in the local area rose from 4,154 to 15,644, giving Blanchardstown the status as the highest employment growth area in the country.

Today, in recognition of the Government's "very ambitious target", over 30 per cent of ITB students come from non-traditional backgrounds - this includes disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.

Over the course of the institute's seven-year history, it has evolved from a campus with one temporary building and 236 students to an education nucleus of 2,000 students which boasts six campus buildings, a hi-tech library and computer and engineering laboratories. Having recently secured funding for a new building which will contain several lecture halls, the institute aims to double its enrolment figures by 2010.

Dr Mary Meaney, director of the institute, has borne witness to the changes in ITB and effectively steered its course in an institute of technology (IoT) sector that has been forced to adapt to the changing needs of the economy and education sector.

"The image more than the role has changed. At the beginning, not everyone recognised the standard and quality of the programmes. The change started, however, when it all became much more industry-led and of a higher quality. It put us into direct competition with the universities," says Meaney.

With the quest for knowledge reaching unparalleled heights as Ireland strives to become a leader in the knowledge-based society, students are considering the non-traditional academic options. Choosing a college because of its practical course focus, its relative proximity to home and the need to be cost-effective are all factors in a student's decision to choose ITB.

However, the task of attracting students into science and engineering courses, which have become almost unfashionable in recent decades, remains the shared goal of the IoTs. Both subject areas are suffering from what Meaney terms a "perception problem".

"From an early age, children become acquainted with the wonders of technology in PlayStations, mobile phones and cars and wrongly assume they understand their workings and design. Subsequently, they become bored by IT.

"I think we have hit the bottom now and we can start clawing our way back. More needs to be done in terms of making the subjects interesting to students, but I'm ever the optimist and I think we are slowly turning things around. However, I don't think we will ever get back to the situation where we were inundated with IT students," says Meaney.

The current Leaving Certificate system, which can exclude students of varying ability and background from third level, also remains a contentious issue.

"It's probably a fair system and is consistent, but it is not necessarily the best. The student who is good at rote learning, who is a visual learner will do extraordinary well. The aesthetic learner who learns things by doing doesn't do as well in the Leaving Certificate," says Meaney.

But adjusting from the formal rote-learning system which is endemic in the Leaving Certificate to the continuous-assessment model and hands-on approach of an IoT such as Blanchardstown can produce varying results among students. A transition phase is normal, wherein students move from formalised education to a system that allows more freedom to learn.

"Many students here may not have done spectacularly well in the Leaving Cert, while others might have done brilliantly. Those who didn't do so well blossom in the system because of continuous assessment and not having to rely on a three-hour exam to pull through.

"The system works in two ways, though. Some students are so conditioned to the Leaving Cert model that they have to learn everything off by heart and get quite a shock when they are asked to critically analyse something or make up their minds on something."

But, having provided them with an alternative model of learning, retaining students for the duration of their chosen course remains problematic across the IoT sector.

In the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown over 70 per cent of students stay to complete their studies. This overall percentage would be lower, however, if it factored in the common occurrence of students transferring from one course to another, according to Meaney.

The task of reducing the number of students who drop-out of ITB is based on a two-tiered approach of maintaining standards and quality of learning on one hand and balancing this with the need to encourage and retain the student on the other.

"We try to impress on students that they are getting value for money, that their attendance is costing the economy €10,000 per head per annum. Generally, students don't squander their courses lightly, and if they do it is generally because they find that they are simply in the wrong course."

As the number of colleges, institutes and universities has increased, the competition to attract Leaving Cert students has intensified leaving colleges and IoTs to turn their attention to the mature student cohort.

With between 70 and 80 per cent of Ireland's working population without a third-level qualification, part-time courses that provide workers with an opportunity to up-skill and be eligible for promotion will become ever more common in IoTs.

"The majority of these part-time student programmes, however, are not funded and it is a big issue for us. In many cases, students are contributing to their education, except in a minority of courses which have funding. There needs to be acknowledgment by the Government that these students make the same economic contribution as a full-time student."

But aside from the habitual problems of funding and retention rates, Meaney and her 150 staff are gearing up for a promising future which will see the builders return and their ambitions of expanding the programmes and doubling the student register become a reality.

HISTORY: Opened in 1999 with the aim of increasing participation in higher education among the residents of north-west Dublin, Meath and Kildare.

LOCATION: At the intersection of the N3 and the M50 Corridor, the institute is located within the College Business and Technology Park on Blanchardstown Road North.

CAMPUS: Consists of a learning and innovation centre, teaching, apprentice and advance buildings, library, computer and engineering laboratories, sports hall and restaurant.

DIRECTOR: Dr Mary Meaney holds a doctorate in environmental chemistry from DCU where she worked as a lecturer and registrar before being appointed director of the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB).

NUMBER OF STUDENTS: Over 2,000

FACULTIES: School of Business and Humanities and School of Informatics and Engineering.

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMMES: Computer engineering, computing, horticulture, business studies, business studies with Information technology, social science.

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMMES: Master of Science in computing, Master of Arts in language education.

PART-TIME COURSES: Accountancy, the European Computer Driving Licence, Cisco Certified Networking Associate, IT essentials.

For a list of all courses, contact ITB for prospectus or visit www.itb.ie