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New Programme For Laois And Offaly TY Students In Digital Arts

Friday, 19 December 2025 09:19

The New Programme features Filmmaking, Podcasting and Virtual Reality.

LOETB and the Digital Arts: New programme for Laois and Offaly TY Students New Programme for TY Students features Filmmaking, Podcasting and Virtual Reality.

Clonaslee College was the venue for the launch of the new TY Digital Arts Programme for Laois-Offaly ETB schools on December 10th.

Students and guests got the chance to hear about this exciting new partnership programme.

Developed for Transition Year students by LOETB, with Laois and Offaly County Councils - including key support and guidance from Film Offaly and Laois Arts Office, this new initiative in the LOETB S.T.E.A.M. Programme sees TY students receive specialised equipment and training in the areas of Filmmaking, Podcasting and Virtual Reality Content Creation.

With a generous prize fund of €5,000 that is provided by Laois and Offaly County Councils, students work on a competition brief to put their new skills to use, telling stories of their own schools and communities.

All their work, which involves 4 Laois secondary schools and 5 Offaly Secondary schools will feature at the LOETB S.T.E.A.M. Showcase Event & Awards Ceremony taking place in Esker Arts Theatre, Tullamore on May 6th.

This Oscars-style event will present the work of the students on the big screen, with the winning teams announced on the night. Clonaslee College was chosen as the programme launch because of the school’s growing reputation for digital innovation, particularly with their ground-breaking Transition Year Filmmaking course, developed in conjunction with LOETB.

Following Clonaslee College Principal, Sean Cotter’s warm welcome, Laois-Offaly Director of Schools, Linda Tynan spoke about how happy LOETB are to provide such creative opportunities to their students, thanking both County Council for their wonderful support both with this new programme and its Junior Cycle partner, the LOETB S.T.E.A.M. Programme. Ray Bell, Broadband Officer with Offaly County Council thanked Film Offaly for their knowledge and support, while Antoinette Brennan, Laois Broadband Officer with Laois County Council spoke of how enthusiastic both councils are about helping develop and support a programme that will greatly enhance the digital creativity and innovation in the two counties.

Muireann Ní Chonaill of Laois Arts Office, encouraged the gathered students to seize the wonderful opportunities available to them through the programme, while also detailing recent successful film industry projects in the area. The launch concluded by hearing from Clonaslee College teacher, Carina Dunne who, along with fellow film studies teacher Pamela Wilson, has been pioneering a new filmmaking course in the school.

Both Carina and her students spoke with great positivity about their experiences of the course and the skills that the students have learned.

With that in mind, they were very enthusiastic about putting their newly gained skills to use for the new LOETB TY Digital Arts Programme – and possible bringing home a big prize. 

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