St. John's Central College

St. John's Central College
Lár Choláiste Eoin
	File:St johns central college logo cork ireland.jpg
Former names	The School of Building and Junior Technical Institute
Principal	Gerard Looney
Students	1100
Location	Sawmill Street, Cork
Website	http://www.stjohnscollege.ie/

St. John's Central College (Irish: Lár Choláiste Eoin) is a further education college in Cork City, in the Republic of Ireland. The college is administered by the City of Cork VEC.

History

19th Century

The front of St. John's Central College, church building, formerly known as St. John's Episcopalian church — The formerly named St. John's Episcopalian church currently houses classrooms, and features as the College's logo.

The earliest part of the college is St. John's Episcopalian church, which was built in 1840. The church was used by the local community, which included young women from the Governesses Seminary in Warren Place.^[2]

A second building on Sawmill Street, Buckingham House, was built in the mid 19th Century, and was used as a female refuge and penitentiary until its closure in 1901. The building was then occupied by the Buckingham House Free School, an orphanage that had operated since 1875. ^[3]

1950's to 1960's

St. John's Episcopalian church was sold to the City of Cork VEC on the 11th of June 1963 for IR£19,885. Buckingham House ran until 1958 when it was sold to the City of Cork VEC for IR£13,100.

In 1961, The School of Building and Junior Technical Institute commenced its classes. The college was aimed at vocational training, and included a School of Furniture, built in 1963.

1980's to 1990s

The college saw declining pupil numbers during the 1980s, and moved to teach Post Leaving Certificate courses.

2000s

The front of the new building — The new building constructed in 2003

In 2003 the college had over 1000 students enrolled in its courses. To keep up with this demand, the original wall of the female refuge and penitentiary on Sawmill Street were demolished, as well as classrooms constructed during the mid 1960's. In their place was constructed a new four story, 5200 square metre teaching facility.

Courses

St. John's offers both academic and vocational courses. Academic courses include Applied Sciences, Photographic Studies, Software Engineering and Games Design ^[4], all of which have routes into Higher education. Vocational courses on offer include alarm maintenance, motor maintenance, telecommunications, Environmental science and hairdressing.

Facilities

The college includes many modern teaching facilities, including a laboratory, dark room, art studios, hair dressing studio and tool workshops.

Information Resource Centre (IRC)

The Information Resource Centre at St. Johns contains many books designed to help students with their courses. The IRC also includes computers where students can research on the internet, or access the library's online catalogue. Students can also download their course and lesson notes, in a pilot scheme designed to help students access their college work online.

References

^ "Cork VEC > Schools & Colleges > St. John's Central College". Retrieved 2010-01-26. The City of Cork VEC Profile for St. John's Central College
^ "St. John's Central College - A Brief History". Retrieved 2010-01-26. A Brief History of the College
^ "School Records > Cork City & County Archives". Retrieved 2010-01-26. Education facilities in Cork
^ "St. John's Central College, Sawmill Street, Cork - Welcome to studentfinance.ie!". Retrieved 2010-01-26. Courses list