Welcome to the Open Training College website. I hope you will enjoy exploring our website and the information it provides on who we are and what we do. If you are a front-line staff member or manager working in services within the non-profit sector then this website will present you with information on professional courses of study that can contribute to your ongoing professional and personal development. If you are visiting the site for other reasons then please enjoy learning about us.

The Open Training College is a division of St. Michael’s House established in 1992 in response to a need to provide professional education and training programmes to staff working in services for people with a disability. We have been steadily growing our courses and reputation since that time and now are a well respected, well established academic institute of excellence in our field. Recently, we have moved to providing management programmes to degree level to the wider non-profit sector – a move that was informed by extensive consultation with stakeholders from these sectors.

With regard to our courses for the disability sector, to date we have worked with students from almost all disability agencies nationally covering the intellectual, physical, sensory and mental health areas. A testament to our success is that agencies all over the country consistently support staff to study with us.  Equally important is that our graduates have gone on to become leaders in the field and consistently make a contribution to the development of high quality, person centred services. As a College we believe in the inclusion of all people in society. The principles of supporting empowerment, honouring rights and working in partnership apply to all aspects of College work.

We can attribute our success to an excellent, professional and dedicated team of staff, an honest and dedicated focus on the welfare and success of our students, committed and determined students over the years and the support of the agencies who have been consistent and loyal customers since our inception. Together we have contributed in no small way to the growth and development of services for people within the community and voluntary sector and while there is still much work to be done the successes have been significant.

I invite you to peruse our website at your leisure. We hope it will give you an excellent insight into the College and our work. Do let us know if there is additional information we can provide for you. Thank you for your interest.

Karen Finnerty
College Director