Community Education at An Cosán seeks to build skills and confidence to promote personal and professional development. Our courses are designed to support you at whatever stage of your education journey you are at. There are no essays or exams!
For details about our Access courses starting in September 2023, click here.
All our Access courses take place in An Cosán, Kiltalown Village Centre, Fortunestown Road, Jobstown, Tallaght, D24 R3PN.
Are you afraid of technology? Do you feel like you have been left behind in this digital age? Our computer and technology courses aim to provide learners with the skills and confidence to live and work in a digital world.
Return To Learning (digital skills & personal development) – Wednesdays 09:30 – 12:00
The holistic style of the course helps learners to develop their digital skills while building confidence and gaining the essential life and study skills that will help them make the move back into education. This course is ideal for anyone planning a return to learning. Progression paths include entry to our Level 5 and Level 6 programmes.
Technology for the Terrified! Fridays 09:30 – 12:00
The aim of the course is to take the fear out of using laptops, tablets, and smartphones and to increase digital inclusion. Also, to safely search the internet and understand online security and access to apps, emails, online shopping, and social media. This course is for complete beginners and is open to both men and women.
Step Up 2 Tech! Fridays 12:30 – 14:30
This course is for people who would like to increase their tech skills for use in their everyday lives and work. It empowers learners to use Microsoft Office 365, shopping websites, booking websites, and social media with confidence. Learners on this course are given the option to gain a Level 5 Certificate in Word Processing in the Spring term. This course is open to both men and women, and is ideal to undertake alongside a Level 5 course.
Digital Inclusion & eLearning Tools:
Next Start Date:
September 2023
The health and well-being strand aims to provide learners with the space to explore their own sense of well-being. To nourish the mind, body and soul and to encourage resilience and self-care in a supportive atmosphere.
Next Start Date:
September 2023
The first steps to education courses aim to provide learners with the skills and confidence in the important areas of literacy and numeracy. The courses are designed to support you and make you feel empowered to learn and to progress at your own pace. This programme is targeted at early school leavers and people new to English and Irish languages.
Next Start Date:
September 2023
We are delighted to introduce the following new courses for 2023!
Skills 4 Life – Thursdays 09:30 – 12:00
This course provides a great foundation of vital life skills for all ages and stages of life. The course covers three National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) programmes over the course of a year:
Digital literacy skills are embedded into the course. Learners are also encouraged and supported to progress into additional Back to Education programmes or Well-being courses in An Cosán and are facilitated to get involved in the organising of community events locally.
Skills 4 Life supports learners to progress onto and achieve accreditation on the QQI framework using NALA’s online learning, which allows learners access to NQF at both
Level 2 and 3.
Discover Your Path – Thursdays 09:30 – 12:00
Discover Your Path is a 12-week Life Skills & Futures Literacy programme aimed at women. Learners will be supported to recognise the skills they have, look at skills they have gained throughout their lives and investigate skills they would like to gain, then plan their path forward.
This course encourages learners to Think BIG.:
Women’s Tales in the Digital Age – Thursdays 18:30 – 21:00
This 12-week course is designed to empower women to become the creators and narrators of their own stories, while also building digital literacy. It aims to help women uncover their story, make sense of it, and tell it in a creative and empowering way. Learners will learn how to create a short 2-4 minute video to bring their story to life.
Next Start Date:
September 2023
All our Access courses are FREE, but we do ask for a small contribution to assist with hospitality and photocopying.
We are very grateful for the support of our partner organisations: Dublin & Dún Laoghaire Education & Training Board, the HSE and TUSLA.
An Cosán’s Foundation Level programmes provide a supportive, fun, and collaborative virtual learning environment in which we encourage learners to participate actively in their own development. Although they are not officially accredited, learners will receive a Certificate of Achievement from An Cosán on completion.
This programme introduces learners to the main concepts of community development and social action. We will use animation, video, and music to examine key themes such as:
We draw on case studies and learners’ own experiences to discuss the big issues facing their communities, including youth visibility, identity politics, and community empowerment. Learners will identify practical approaches and strategies to support their community’s development.
Cost of Module: €200
Next Start Date:
Depending on demand, please enquire by emailing courses@ancosan.ie
This programme explores the causes, course, and consequences of drug addiction and how they relate to the individual, the family, the community, and society. Addiction issues related to diverse populations are presented, and the connections between local and global contexts in relation to drug use will also be explored. Learners will identify practical approaches and strategies to support community drugs work. We will look at case studies and current response alternatives regarding intervention, treatment, education, and prevention.
Cost of Module: €200
Next Start Date:
Depending on demand, please enquire by emailing courses@ancosan.ie
This programme will explore the role of leadership in the community. Learners will investigate a model of grassroots community leadership in practice, both nationally and globally. Learners will also examine the concept of leadership and analyse different leadership styles and qualities.
Learners will identify their own leadership skills as well as identify strategies and practices that work for community leadership development. Learners will also explore how technology can be used in community leadership.
We will draw on case studies and learners’ own experiences to discuss key issues facing their communities, including:
We will use animation, video, and music to examine key themes such as power and democracy in our community, the role of the state, and digital citizenship.
Cost of Module: €200
Next Start Date:
Depending on demand, please enquire by emailing courses@ancosan.ie
This programme introduces learners to important questions about the meanings of gender in society. We introduce key ideas, including how gender is socially constructed, how gender structures our ways of being and thinking, and how the personal is political. Participants will apply these insights to a variety of current social, political and economic problems.
Key themes we will explore and discuss together include:
An Introduction to Gender Studies will improve your self-understanding, enhance your understanding of the world, and help with advancing gender equality.
Cost of Module: €200
Next Start Date:
Depending on demand, please enquire by emailing courses@ancosan.ie
This programme introduces learners to climate justice, one of the biggest issues of our times. Participants will learn the basics of environmentalism and apply these insights to a variety of current political and ecological problems.
Key themes for discussion include
We will examine national and international case studies of community-led movements and projects for climate justice. An Introduction to Climate Justice will enrich learners’ understanding of the world while developing new and exciting ideas to change it.
Cost of Module: €200
Next Start Date:
Depending on demand, please enquire by emailing courses@ancosan.ie
Where does democracy come from? What does it mean to be a citizen? How can we change society and who is going to do it? The Citizenship and Social Action programme will explore the ideas and practices associated with democracy, citizenship, and social action.
Students will examine Irish and European Union policies on the subject of citizenship and participation. Learners will also analyse digital citizenship in the age of the internet and social media, as well as strategies and practical approaches to support community empowerment.
Cost of Module: €200
Next Start Date:
Depending on demand, please enquire by emailing courses@ancosan.ie