News and Events

Press Release 18/5/2009 - Greyhound Skillnet – Still A Good News Story

Despite all the doom and gloom of the recession, the Irish Greyhound Skillnet remains a good news story. The Skillnet has been in operation since 2006, providing quality training and related services to the greyhound industry. Now coming to the end of it’s second round of funding, through the National Training Fund and despite serious budgetary cuts, the network is still working to develop training and educational resources which will continue to be available. Current and future members can assist with our decision-making process, by completing and returning a simple questionnaire. You may do this via eMail or post. Download the questionnaire here.

The Story So Far

Since the network was established, 529 trainees have participated in more than 30,000 training days, including certified training for owners, breeders and trainers and postgraduate training for veterinary surgeons. The Greyhound Skillnet has delivered lectures and workshops on a wide range of subjects, with a major focus on improving welfare in the industry and improving competitiveness.

Members enjoyed a range of Open Days to nationally renowned facilities including Dunphy's in Portlaw, Newpark Stud and Shelbourne Stud. Members of the Skillnet were given guided tours of these facilities and were able see how the experts achieved their success. A number of master classes were also held, providing intensive programmes such as the very popular veterinary master classes, with Plunkett Devlin.

Certification

The success of the greyhound Skillnet has been so great that the committee, together with the Irish Greyhound Board, began to examine the possibility of developing nationally recognised qualifications for the industry. To this end, the organisation worked with Teagasc (the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority) to certify 4 modules to FETAC Level 5.

These are:___• Anatomy and Physiology
____________• Greyhound Breeding and Pup Care
____________• Occupational Health and Safety in Greyhound Kennels
____________• Schooling Young Greyhounds

The next stage of this journey is to work with the Irish Greyhound Board to develop a full FETAC Level 5 major award, utilising these component awards to enable young people to get a recognised qualification and to progress to Diploma and Degree courses, in Agriculture or related disciplines.

The network has also worked with University College Dublin to develop a full Postgraduate Certificate in canine sports medicine, which is certified to HETAC Level 9. The course commenced in October 2008, with 26 veterinarians who hope to specialise in working with greyhounds. Keep an eye on these vets when seeking treatment for your dogs; they will have all the latest knowledge and information available to the industry.

One Day Seminars

For those people who were not interested in certification or exams, but wanted to improve their knowledge of greyhounds, a number of one day seminars and workshops were hosted, featuring some of the leading authorities in the greyhound industry, such as Des Fegan, Plunkett Devlin, John Konkye and Floyd Amphlett.

Training for IGB

The network provides professional training and development to the Irish Greyhound Board. In 2008, training was carried out in areas such as marketing, branding, customer care and executive development.

All of this does not happen without a lot of hard work and dedication. In our case, special mention was be given to the Greyhound Skillnet steering committee, all of whom give of their time and energy with no financial compensation. This is especially true of Chairman Frank O’ Connell, who has been a champion of the network from the start. Without Frank’s determination and commitment the project would never have received the backing of the Irish Greyhound Board or Skillnets Limited. Frank has remained committed to the concept of improving training and education within the industry and has pushed this agenda tirelessly.

For further information contact: Greyhound Skillnet at info@greyhoundskillnet.com or 022-53407