Minister Stanton launched the Bridging Programme for Immigrant Internationally Educated Teachers in the Marino Institute for Education. The Bridging Programme forms one component of the Migrant Teacher Project, which is run by the Marino Institute for Education and funded by the Department of Justice and Equality through the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration (OPMI).
Speaking at the launch event Minister Stanton said:
The Migrant Teacher Project aims to address the issue of the under-representation of migrants in the teaching profession in Ireland. More specifically, the Bridging Programme has been developed for migrant teachers who have been educated and trained outside of Ireland. It has been designed and accredited by the Marino Institute of Education (MIE) in conjunction with their accrediting university, Trinity College Dublin. The accreditation aims to provide successful participants with a nationally recognised certification, which should strengthen subsequent applications for teaching positions in Ireland. The Bridging Programme aims to recruit sixty Immigrant Internationally Educated Teachers (IIETs) to participate and it will be delivered over one academic year, using a blended learning approach.
The Migrant Teacher Project represents an important step in the implementation of the national Migrant Integration Strategy, which includes Action 27 – “Proactive efforts will be made to attract migrants into teaching positions, including raising awareness of the Irish language aptitude test and adaptation period for primary teaching.”. The Project is funded under the National Integration Funding Programme – which is administered by the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration (OPMI).
Date: 14th November 2018
