Adult Literacy for Life National Framework Strategy

“Further Education and Training is not just about preparation for employment, it is about education for life and this project is a great example of this.” Patrick Gerard Murphy, Chair of Cork ETB

This project developed a handbook for Adult Literacy tutors to teach their learners about democracy and the Irish voting system.

It also developed self-directed online training in four languages. This allows more advanced learners and the general public to learn about how democracy works in Ireland.

This project received ALL Additional Funding. Cork ETB (CETB) and both Cork City and County Councils worked intensively together to raise awareness of the Irish voting system, in late 2023 and early 2024. It also worked with a range of CETB students of all ages, with both literacy and language needs. They were involved in making voting information more accessible, both visually and in plain language.

The project resulted in a digital resource being created that was open to all through a QR code. This was very popular among students and the wider community.

Along with the digital resource, a tutor handbook was created. This helped tutors embed this resource and voter awareness in all their courses at any level. This was especially helpful in the run up to the local elections.

Many tutors reported successfully integrating voter awareness and active citizenship into their sessions by using this resource.

This Your Voice Counts QR code was shared with all CETB staff and students. It was launched at a large event in early 2024, that included County and City Council representatives, County and City Libraries and a range of local community partners across Cork city and county.

Community Education, Youthreach, Youth Services, Cork City Partnership and ESOL coordinators also joined the event.

The QR code was displayed in all libraries. Feedback was very positive from members of the wider community. Students from local International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses reported voting for the first time after using this resource. Cork's 25 local literacy services, IPAS centres, Cork's 26 local library branches all used this resource. It was also shared with the national library service for all national libraries.

To access the Your Voice Counts online course in English, Irish, Polish, and Ukrainian, please click here.

To have a look at Cork ETB's information visit, please click here.

Justice Marie Baker speaking at the event.

This project was a collaboration between Cork ETB and Cork City and County Councils. We were also supported by An Coimisiún Toghcháin, DALC, AONTAS, and ETBI.

For more information about the project, please contact Veronica Bowen Cork, Regional Literacy Coordinator in Cork ETB, at veronica.bowen@corketb.ie.

The Adult Literacy for Life Collaboration and Innovation Fund

The Collaboration and Innovation Fund supports projects for adults with unmet literacy, numeracy and digital literacy needs and projects that support organisations to be literacy friendly. The closing date for 2024 applications has now passed but keep an eye out for information on our 2025 fund which will be launched in December.