Vocational Education Committee
A Vocational Education Committee (VEC) are committees in the Republic of Ireland that have charge of vocational schools, certain colleges and previously had authority over the Dublin Institute of Technology and the Regional Technical Colleges until 1992. The committee system was created by the Vocational Education Act, 1930 and amended many times since.
Dublin Institute of Technology and the Regional Technical College system was a particularly prestigious part of the Vocational Education Committee system until 1992 when the colleges were separated from the committees. Since this time the committees have expanded into adult education and further education.
Organization
The Vocational Education Committee system is to a large extent based on the traditional counties and cities of Ireland. There is also a provision for towns to have their own independent committees.
County Tipperary has two committees, North Tipperary and South Tipperary in line with local government boundaries. County Dublin is in the anomalous situation as it has a committee even though the county no longer exists in law as a local authority (see Dublin County Council); the committee covers the county except for the extents as covered by the corressponding committess for City of Dublin and former Corporation of Dún Laoghaire.
Dún Laoghaire is the only town that has its own committee, this is due to the fact that the town was once a municipal borough with its own "corporation", this corporation status is no longer the case since the abolition of the Corporation of Dún Laoghaire however the committee remains. The towns of Bray, Drogheda, Sligo, Tralee and Wexford originally had their own committees, however these where amalgamated into the county committees in those areas where they resided in a reform of the sector in 1998.
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Categories
Education in the Republic of Ireland