Education Placement

Hello all! 

I am a student in Canada pursuing my Bachelor of Education / Teachers College. For the program, we have to organize an "alternative settings placement," which basically means a placement in education that is outside of our traditional Canadian classroom. This can be anything from educating in a zoo, to working with a volunteer organization, to working with a regular classroom that is outside of a regular Canadian class. We are able to do the placement outside of Canada if we want, and it has been my dream for a while to travel to Ireland, so I figured how cool would it be to do my placement in Ireland! I have done some preliminary research, but it is kind of hard when, obviously I don't live in Ireland, so I don't even know where to start haha! I have found a couple castles that have education programs, such as lectures and tours, and I understand that the Dublin Zoo does some education, and there are a few outdoor education centres that I have found; I've also heard of the Teachers council, and will be reaching out to them to see if they can assist in organizing me a school placement. I've yet to email anyone because I haven't had the time (the first two weeks of class are intense) so I will be sending out emails this week. THE POINT of this is that I am wondering if anyone can help me by suggesting a few places that they can think of that might be of interest to me to contact. It would be for 2 or 3 weeks in late April/early May 2020, and would need to consist of a minimum of 75 hours, and must be unpaid. 

Thank you in advance!!! 

Hello Delaine,

It's wonderful to hear that as part of your degree course you are able to come over and stay with us for part of a placement!

You have already mentioned places such as Dublin Zoo, you may also wish to try Foto Wildlife Park, County Cork if this is something that would also be of interest to you.

Normally, as a Canadian, you do not need a visa to visit the island of Ireland for tourism reasons but I would suggest checking out our information on visas as studying and volunteer working is outside of the normal no visa requirements.

There are some organizations who specialize in volunteer work in Ireland, please feel free to check out Volunteer Ireland and also Focus Ireland who may be able to help you with your search. Not forgetting, of course, the Teaching Council as you have already mentioned who may also be able to make suggestions.

I hope this gives you lots of inspiration, and hopefully, your fellow members and some industry partners will be able to add to this list!

Speak soon, 
Martin