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Community Health Services & Social Care

PLC Post Leaving Cert
5M4468

This course is suitable for both mature students and school leavers, who would like to work in the area of health and social care. This QQI Award provides the opportunity to pursue a fulfilling and rewarding career providing care and support to vulnerable people in the community.

Award Name Certificate
NFQ Classification
Awarding Body College
NFQ Level
Award Name First Aid Certificate
NFQ Classification
Awarding Body Order of Malta
NFQ Level
Award Name Level 5 Certificate (Level 5 NFQ)
NFQ Classification Major
Awarding Body QQI
NFQ Level Level 5 NFQ
Award Name NFQ Classification Awarding Body NFQ Level
Certificate College
First Aid Certificate Order of Malta
Level 5 Certificate (Level 5 NFQ) Major QQI Level 5 NFQ
Alternate Provider:
Location:
Dun Laoghaire
Attendance Options:
Full time, Daytime
Apply to:
Course provider

Duration

This is a full- time one year course, which runs from September to May. Exact details of the timetable will be given out to students during the induction process prior to class commencement in September.

Entry Requirements

One of the following:
- Leaving Certificate (LC Established, LCVP, LCA) or equivalent

- A Full QQI Level 4 Award (or equivalent)

- For Mature applicants (aged 21 or over) - appropriate experience will be considered in lieu of formal qualifications. Note: Mature applicants may be entitled to VTOS funding. For details about VTOS, please contact the college.

- For applicants who do not meet the above entry requirements, please contact DFEi.

-Applicants whose first language is not English require level B1 competency on the CEFR language framework. Applicants may be required to undergo English language testing to establish their language competency.

Careers / Further progression

Progression Opportunities
Graduates are eligible to apply through the CAO and/or the Higher Education Links Scheme for entry to year one of a range of higher certificate and degree programmes, at Universities, Institutes of Technology and Technological Universities using their full QQI Level 5 major award. Places are not guaranteed in these Institutes and are subject to students meeting certain criteria. It is the students' responsibility to consult with the relevant HEI for information on the admissions process and any specific entry requirements. Students may also refer to the individual HEI prospectus or may also refer to the QQI FET section of the CAO website. www.cao.ie

Examples of CAO progression opportunities are listed on our website.

Career Paths
Graduates may find employment working with individual clients, clients in residential care or in the community e.g. resource centres, intellectual disability environments, family support, addiction services, youth projects or as a special needs assistant.

QQI FET Links to CAO Courses

Course Web Page

Further information

All courses commence the week beginning Monday 16th September 2024.

Admissions Information:
Admissions for the academic year 2024/2025 are now open. Applications are only accepted online.

Five Step Admissions Process 2024/2025.
Step 1 - Apply online. No application fee charged.

Step 2 - Offer: You will be notified by DFEi with an offer of a course place. Please check your junk mail.

Step 3 - Acceptance: To secure your place, you must submit additional data required through your individual online account and pay your €40 non-refundable acceptance fee (only payable online). Failure to complete this process will result in you not securing your place on the course.

Step 4 - Registration: This is done through your online account. This involves paying all of your course fees in full and uploading all of the relevant documentation below on or before Monday 26th August 2024.

Step 5 - Induction and Commencement: Induction is provided before course commencement. You will be notified in due course of the relevant dates.

Overview
This course is suitable for both mature students and school leavers, who would like to work in the area of health and social care. This QQI Award provides the opportunity to pursue a fulfilling and rewarding career providing care and support to vulnerable people in the community. Students will acquire knowledge of health and social care theories and best practice. Students will also acquire practical experience on work placement. This could include a variety of settings such as resource centres, hostels for homeless, addiction services and youth projects. This course is delivered by teachers including specialist nurses who bring a real depth of experience to their teaching. Students will use two fully equipped nursing suites for all of the practical work.

Course Modules:
Care Provision and Practice
Family Studies
Social Studies
Community Addiction Studies
Human Growth and Development
Teamworking
Work Experience
Communications

Work Experience
Students will be required to undertake a period work placement in an organisation connected to their vocational area during the academic year. Work Experience is mandatory for all of our full-time Level 5 courses. Students are required to source their own work placement but will be assisted in this by the work experience teacher. The work placement is usually for a period of 10 days or a minimum of 60 hours. Students usually find the work experience element of the course to be invaluable and should bear in mind that a successful work placement can sometimes lead to further opportunities.

This programme requires students to undertake work experience that will bring them into contact with children or vulnerable adults and in which they assume positions of trust. As a result all students will undertake Garda Vetting prior to commencing their work experience.

Applicants should be aware that healthcare environments used in work experience may insist that students are fully vaccinated for Covid 19.

Assessment techniques will be used to assess the knowledge and skills that students will have achieved on successful completion of modules:

Student Record
Collection of Work
Assignments
Examination (Written)
Project
Skills Demonstration

A full major award is granted on passing the relevant eight components. On successful completion of each component, you will be awarded a pass, a merit or a distinction grade. See www.qqi.ie for more details

5M4468 - Community Health Services.

Certification:
Level 5 QQI Award - Community and Health Services (5M4468)
First Aid Certificate (Optional)
Manual and People Handling Certificate (Optional)
Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults - HSeLanD

Dún Laoghaire Further Education Institute,
17 Cumberland Street, Dún Laoghaire,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.
Tel: +353 1 2809676
Fax: +353 1 2843767
Email: info@dfei.ie

Alternate Provider:
Location:
Dun Laoghaire
Attendance Options:
Full time, Daytime
Apply to:
Course provider