Our Holding You Back campaign has come to an end, but its impact has been strong and wide-reaching with lots of radio, digital, and print media appearances throughout the week.
We see this only as a jumping-off point progressing our campaign on removing the financial barriers to adult learning, especially in the run-up to Budget 2025 and the upcoming general election.
The Holding You Back campaign called for the removal of financial barriers to adult learning for people across the country.
Our research has found that people are being forced to choose between heating their homes and staying in education.
41% of people participating in adult education are struggling to pay for household bills and meals.
Almost one third of people surveyed said they need greater financial support to remain in education to improve their quality of life, build knowledge, and boost their career opportunities.
One of our five learner ambassadors Ailish Dunne featured in an interview with our CEO Dearbháil on RTÉ News - both on the 1 O'Clock News and on the Six 1 News. A written piece also featured on the RTÉ website.
Speaking about her experience of retiring from the Paralympics and returning to education as a blind person, Ailish said: "I've been through so much in the last few years and have achieved so much that now for the next step I don't want the cost of education to hold me back from achieving my dreams."
Dearbháil and Ailish spoke to Mario Rosenstock on Today FM about the barriers to learning, with Ailish speaking about how the cost of transport and the digital supports she needs to learn as a blind person are prohibitive and may prevent her from doing the university course in psychology that she is aiming for. You can listen back here.
We were delighted to have actor and writer Emmet Kirwan support our campaign, especially during the same week as the return of his sell-out play “Dublin Oldschool” in the Olympia Theatre in Dublin.
Our Strategic Communications Officer Kate interviewed Emmet for his take on social justice and equality issues in our education sytem.
Speaking about the campaign, Emmet said:
“It's a lot easier to do well in education if you live in a stable household and not in poverty. When people are living in precarious situations, whether that’s housing, medical, or financial, it’s very hard to do well.”
Read the interview with Emmet here.
The Irish Independent featured two articles about the campaign, one focusing on Ailish Dunne’s story, and one on another of our learner ambassadors Paula McLoughlin, who spoke about how – as a lone parent – paying for things like a laptop was difficult as it takes “money out of the household kitty.” Read the article on Paula’s perspective here.
Paula also featured in an interview on NewsTalk – on the radio and on their website.
"I'm a single parent so have to spend €1,000 maybe and an extra couple of hundred quid on top of that for programmes [like] Word and stuff like that - I'm taking that from the family's kitty," she said. Read more here. And listen back to the interview here.
Listen back to the interview with Dearbháil here.
Ailish Dunne featured in the Leinster Express, speaking about her experience of the barriers to learning. Read the article here.
Our very own mural designed by the fantastic Emmalene Blake, which is on Southcircular Road in Dublin, near Tesco.
The mural shows the educational goals or dreams a person might have, and the barriers holding them back from those dreams.
It will be there for another couple of weeks so go check it out before it’s gone.
According to our CEO Dearbháil Lawless, it’s a risk for many people to give up a job, or go part-time, in order to start a course or training programme. She states:
“Education should improve people’s circumstances, not create greater financial instability. Some apprentices are sleeping in their vans because they can’t find anywhere affordable to live due to the housing crisis. People with families are being forced to choose between paying energy bills or course fees. This means a lot of people end up leaving their course. More financial supports will have wider benefits for Irish society, including increasing social equality and building stronger communities.”
Ahead of Budget 2025 and the upcoming general election, we are developing a General Election Manifesto, and meeting with political party representatives to ensure the issues raised in the Holding You Back campaign are prioritised when decisions are being made about funding for adult and community education.
We will continue this work over the coming months. More on this to come soon.
For more information on the Holding You Back campaign, contact our Head of Communications Rachael Ryan at rryan@aontas.com
Find out more at aontas.com/holdingyouback