For mature learners, the challenges and successes in undertaking a formal learning programme can be particularly significant, as they bring with them a range of prior experiences of, and attitudes toward learning. Older mature learners (i.e., 40+ years), represent a notable proportion of learners in further education and training in Ireland. This…

Refugee Background Mature Students, with many having come from the global South to seek asylum, form a minority group in higher education. This qualitative study uses a Critical Race Theory framework to examine the lived experience of four Refugee Background Mature Students from Angola and Nigeria with a focus on microaggresions, the everyday…

Background: Opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities to become bi/multilingual tend not to be widely available despite demonstrated linguistic and extralinguistic advantages associated with an ability to use more than one language. This article focuses on the learning experiences of students with intellectual disabilities in…

This paper draws on the qualitative findings of a Master's research study which focused on the unique voice of neurodiverse students' lived experiences in Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) courses in Ireland. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with neurodiverse learners in 2021 and these findings, with relevance to the Further Education and…

The proposed changes in the further education sector, including the rationalisation of the VEC into Local Education and Training Boards (LETBs) and the closures of the Senior Traveller Training Centres (STTCs), have implications for guidance counselling provision to the Traveller community. This article discusses female Travellers' experiences of…

The authors explore their experience of a course for long-term unemployed people and reflect as to whether the traits identified by Tom Bourner on readiness for action learning actually relate to their experience. They conclude that based on the obvious development by the members of the group over the course, they observed, in some small way, the…

This paper presents an analysis of the views of Irish graduate entrepreneurs on the efficacy of entrepreneurship education in fostering their development as entrepreneurs. It answers three key questions: (a) what was the graduate entrepreneurs' experience of undergraduate entrepreneurship education; (b) what was the graduate entrepreneurs'…

The Commission on International Adult Education (CIAE) of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) provides a forum for the discussion of international issues related to adult education in general, as well as adult education in various countries around the globe. The following purposes summarize the work of the…