Hi there,
After a rollercoaster winter of economic and political upheaval now is the time to start looking for real solutions to sustainable employment in Ireland.Thankfully the path most likely to succeed is the green one. With growing investment, Ireland’s Green Economy will lead the way in terms of ingenuity, initiative and opportunity over the next decade providing a fresh and exciting perspective on how we work and do business.
At Green Works we are committed to providing jobseekers with the skills needed to get involved and gain employment in all aspects of the Green Economy, whether you want to start your own green business, specialise in retrofitting and thermal insulation or simply want to become more self sufficient through one of our practical skills courses.

Read on to learn about the whole host of new courses available, as well as all the exciting things taking place at the Green Works hubs around the country. Finally we would greatly appreciate it if you could give us 5 minutes of your time to complete our survey.
Many thanks,
The Green Works Team

Great New Courses Taking Place Across The Country:

Thermal Insulation, Green Tourism Enterprise, eBusiness, Sustainable Agriculture, Cooking For Market Trade

We are delighted to announce that we’ve now scheduled many new and exciting courses to taking place around the country over the coming months. Due to popular demand we ar
e now running Thermal Insulation Installation in Dublin, Sligo and Cork. Participants develop the skills required for draught proofing and loft insulation using appropriate tools and materials
A new Green Tourism Enterprise course takes place in Dublin in April examining the potential for local and sustainable tourism in this country.
Also in Dublin, Green eBusiness takes students through all the key concepts of eBusiness with a particular focus on how it can fit into a sustainable future.
The Tipperary Hub is running a Sustainable Agriculture course at the end of this month that includes classes on farming and growing sustainably, community participation, seed identification, promotional work, accessing supports and sale of produce.
Our Sligo Hub is catering for those who wish to grow and sell their own food in a new course called Cooking For Market Trade. This is a hands-on course (including cookery lessons on how to make breads, soups, dips, jams, etc.) with extra classes on how to market and label your produce. This course is perfect for anyone looking to get involved in small scale food enterprise.
We have hugely expanded schedules in all our hubs now with courses booking up until June. Choose your preferred hub for a full list of upcoming courses: Cork, Dublin, Sligo, Tipperary.

Green Works on Ocean FM

Will Woodrow, of Green Works Sligo Hub, was interviewed about
the programme on OceanFM on March 2nd. Click here to listen to the interview and hear what Green Works has to offer.

Please Take the Green Works Survey

We are constantly trying to improve our service and the best way to do that is to listen to our students and act on their feedback. If you’ve taken a Green Works course we would greatly appreciate, and love you forever, if you could give us 5 minutes of your time to complete our online survey. Be honest, if we’re great say so, if we’re not, tell us that too.

News from the Green Works Hubs

Mark your diary: Convergence 16, the Sustainable Living Festival, will take place from June 16th to 26th 2011. More details to follow soon.
Green Works Cork is hosting the CEF Waste Plenary Session this Wednesday, 9th March, in Farranferris College at 7.15pm. It’s free to attend and all are welcome. Keeping with the theme of minimising wastage, Cork has now added Rainwater Harvesting to its newly expanded schedule, the first running of this course will take place 28th March. The Cork Hub is then taking to the road with classes and demonstrations at the Lifelong Learning Festival in Blackpool Library from 12th to 15th April. In what will be a busy week for the Cork team they will also be showcasing at Adult Education Open Days with Cork VEC in Youghal (12th April) and Ballincollig (13th April).
The Tipperary Hub has just run its first Introducing Social Media course, to show how small, local and rural businesses can use new media, like blogs, facebook, twitter and linkedin, to expand their reach and create community networks to find and engage with their customers. Social media technologies and green business thinking is set to transform how we do business and also what business we do. Utilising these new tools can help all businesses to prosper, even those who have not traditionally been seen to use web based technology.
On Saturday, 26 February, The Sligo Hub hosted a Wind Energy Workshop with twenty in attendance. Green Works trainer, Christian Jenne, introduced participants to the small scale application of wind turbines. This covered the key factors when considering wind as an energy source- the installation of windmills, environmental considerations, their efficiency, cost and return.  Reuben Higgins then outlined his individual experience of installing a wind turbine at his farm in Dromore West, Co. Sligo. The course included theory and practical discussion and was very positively described as “comprehensive, interesting and informative” by students. It is now scheduled for Galway on 16th April. If you are interested in attending please register for this through the Sligo Hub.
The Dublin Hub will play host to two big events over the coming months. The Green Building Forum (6th & 7th May) will explore the question: “Can Ireland achieve net zero environmental impact from the built environment by 2030?,” debated by experts and students alike as we strive to find real long-term solutions to the challenges facing construction in this country. This is a two day forum featuring lectures, debates, discussions and workshops.
Also the Green Business Forum awaits in June to examine in detail the opportunities for entrepreneurs and small businesses within the Green Economy. More details will be published soon.
Remember we always like to say “hi” so drop into one of our hubs for a chat and a cup of tea. See you then!

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