Len O’Connor (b. 1942), former lecturer In Building and Civil Engineering

Dr Len O’Connor was born and reared in Passage West, County Cork, where he got his early education. He served his apprenticeship as a joiner for five years with the firm of Daniel Hegarty and Sons Ltd, and in 1963, at the age of 21, he was awarded a scholarship to teacher training at the Department of Education Teacher Training College in Gorey, County Wexford. His first teaching post was with Wexford VEC in Wexford town where he taught for three years. He then got a post in Cork with the VEC at Scoil Eoin Naofa, Sawmill Street. At the same time as was appointed to the City of Cork VEC, he was invited by the Department of Education to return to the Teacher Training College in Gorey on secondment as a lecturer but permission was not forthcoming from the VEC at that time. After six months at Scoil Eoin Naofa he was again invited by the Department of Education to join its staff lecturing on a new teacher education course which was based in Cork. The VEC agreed to his secondment on this occasion and he remained as a lecturer on this course until 1976 when he joined Cork Institute of Technology, then known as Cork Regional College. He describes his time in Gorey and the requirements for student acceptance on the teacher training course. He recounts the history of the vocational schools in the country, the International Apprenticeship Competition in Cork and his own input into its success. Len O’Connor sat on the National Apprenticeship Advisory Committee, which advises the Board of FÁS on apprenticeship matters, and other national committees and provides his views on the structure and the work of FÁS. He also speaks in detail about other boards on which he served during his long career. He has also written extensively on apprenticeship education and training and related topics.