Welcome from the President of Athlone Institute of Technology

Welcome from the President

The world of work is changing and so too must our approach to delivering part-time, online, and flexible learning for students to upskill themselves for modern society. Lifelong learning has seen a huge increase in demand and uptake for courses over the past year as students want to study in a part-time, flexible way, including remote learning to best suit their needs and lifestyle.

Lifelong and flexible learning means access. Today, more than ever, students value the flexibility online and part-time learning brings, ensuring that their study can fit around work, family, and other commitments.

This flexible learning allows people to learn in the right place at the right time and our Faculty of Continuing, Professional, Online and Distance Learning provides a multitude of courses that will help you upskill, retrain or take the next step in your career path. Our programmes contained within this prospectus are created in tandem with industry, ensuring locality of provision at a regional and national level. As the sole higher education institute in the Midlands, we are uniquely positioned to meet the current and future skills needs of industry and play an integral role in supplying a talent pipeline of highly-skilled, flexible workers - ultimately ensuring the continued growth and success of the region.

Here in AIT, we understand the importance of lifelong learning in facilitating the continued growth and development of the Irish workforce, helping future-proof career prospects by keeping learners’ skills and knowledge upto-date, which in turn boosts professional credibility and employability. Lifelong learning has never been so important: with technology advancing as rapidly as it is, we need to ensure that we possess the skills necessary to keep our knowledge, qualification, and skills relevant. Lifelong learning fuels creativity and innovation, and as well as having economic benefits, it helps keep individuals cognitively engaged and active too.

You have taken the first step today in considering joining a programme in AIT and I would encourage you to reach out to our dedicated staff within the faculty with any questions that you might have. We pride ourselves on our supportive environment and we are here to help you on your learning journey.

I look forward to welcoming you to our community as you begin your studies.

Professor Ciarán Ó Catháin President