IT Tralee has been forced to drop its level 7 Agricultural Mechanisation Bachelor of Science degree course.

This was due to a low level of qualifying applicants securing the necessary work placement in a farm machinery business as required during the three years of the course.

The Farm Tractor & Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) has reacted with disappointment to the decision by IT Tralee not to offer first-year places on the programme for the coming academic year.

Work placement

While it is understood a significant number of students had listed the course in their top three choices on the level 6 and 7 CAO application, such applicants also had to secure a work placement to qualify for the course.

The FTMTA had worked with the college to provide details of potentially available placements to applicants but a sufficient number did not obtain placements to allow the course to go ahead.

The decision not to proceed with the course was not made until very late in the CAO process, in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to make every effort to ensure that the course could go ahead as planned.

IT Tralee indicated that the course will be offered again next year but this is the second year that it has not been possible to offer first-year places on the degree programme.

Cooperation

The Ag Mech degree course at IT Tralee was developed in recent years in co-operation between the college and the farm machinery industry.

FTMTA chief executive Gary Ryan said that the course originally grew out of a need by the industry to have access to a training option for new entrants that reflected the requirements of an evolving farm machinery sector.

The FTMTA CEO maintains that, despite the disappointing developments in relation to the course, the requirement for a new approach to training within the sector remains and the association is focused on working to deliver this.