Knowledge Zone

Portobello Institute’s student body is made up of people living different lives. We understand that learning has to fit into your lifestyle so we offer different delivery methods to make our courses more accessible.

Some students are full-time learners who immerse themselves completely in their course from Monday to Friday. Other students have already committed their weekday schedule to their full-time jobs, so they use Blended Learning to fit their course around their work. Part-time learners want a less intensive method while intensive learners want to get in and get out as soon as possible. 

We have something for everyone. 

Earning a college qualification is an investment of time. Qualifications can take years because they need that time to cover every relevant topic. But a lot of the time investment is about the delivery mode rather than the course content itself. 

At Portobello, we have the flexibility to work to your needs. We create the most efficient delivery method possible by doing so. 

Full Time
Sports, Early Years, Business of Fashion, Travel and Tourism

Full time courses across each department follow the same structure. 

You will be required to be on campus for 2.5 days per week between Monday and Friday. By condensing your schedule down into 2.5 days, we create a more efficient working environment and give you greater flexibility with your overall schedule. There’s no waiting around in between classes. The days of pairing an early morning class and a late evening class with nothing in between are gone. 

The remainder of your coursework is done online or streamed for you. That allows you to complete half of your course from home or wherever suits you best. 

Giving you this greater flexibility means you’re not committing to five days of coursework despite undertaking a full-time approach. 

Johanna Shaw is the course advisor in the Sports Department, “We have two different formats of learning: Blended and Full Time. It’s just making sure that we’re putting each student on the right course format that suits them. They may have extra-curricular sport at the weekends so weekend learning wouldn’t suit them. Typically, Full Time would suit someone coming from the Leaving Cert but they have the option for both.” 

Each of our Level 8 courses in the Sports Department are available in full-time delivery mode with the option of Blended Learning. These courses include: BSc (Hons) in Sports Therapy, BSc (Hons) Sports Science and Performance Analysis, BSc (Hons) Sports Pyschology, Coaching and PE and BSc (Hons) Physical Education and Coaching. If you want to learn more about your options in the Sports department, you can contact Johanna by phone at 01 892 0024 or by email at jo.shaw@portobelloinstitute.com. 

In Early Years, you can study Level 6 Montessori Teaching or BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies in full-time delivery mode with the option of Blended Learning.  For more information on Early Years, contact Jennifer on 01 892 0031 or by email at jennifer.matteazzi@portobelloinstitute.com. 

Airline and Cabin Crew Studies is available in full-time delivery mode in the Travel and Tourism Department. For more information on Travel and Tourism, contact George on 01-8920041 or by email at george.boylan@portobelloinstitute.com. 

In Business of Fashion, the Level 5 Fashion Buying and Merchandising course and the Level 6 Fashion Management course are available in full-time delivery mode with fully-equipped training rooms and an internship programme in semester two. For more information on Fashion, contact George on 01 892 0041 or by email at george.boylan@portobelloinstitute.com.

Full Time – Blended Learning
Sports, Facilities Management, Business of Fashion, Early Years, Travel and Tourism 

Blended Learning is available to all students, including those coming directly from the Leaving Cert. 

It was designed with those in full-time employment in mind. Instead of having mandatory 9am classes on a Monday, we will now facilitate students in the evenings and on weekends. This is still a full-time college experience, as detailed by College Director Denise Flood:  

“When we talk about Blended Learning, that’s full-time delivery too. Any of the degrees (Level 8 and above) we deliver, we don’t deliver them part-time. We deliver them all full time but it’s whether or not it’s face-to-face classes or a Blended format. At the moment, we’re doing everything off site because of Covid but that’s the differentiation between it.” 

The Blended Learning experience has been invaluable during the Covid-19 pandemic and offers both student and lecturer greater flexibility in their work. 

Course advisor Johanna Shaw explains how the Blended Learning approach allows Portobello to adjust as they needed with Full Time students, “A typical Full Time learner would be in 1-2 days a week out of their 3-4 days. What we’ve done at the moment is cover more of the theory in online content in order to still deliver the courses we’ve got students enrolled on, meaning that they’re still graduating at the same time they had planned to.” 

Having the Blended Learning infrastructure in place means that students are not wasting a year. 

Blended Learning is available across most departments in Portobello. It is particularly valuable in Facilities Management because all of our students come from the workplace. Having Blended Learning is part of the reason why Portobello is the only college in Ireland with an accredited degree and Masters programme specifically designed for Workplace and Facilities Management professionals. 

To learn more about Facilities Management or about your options in Blended Learning, you can contact Brandon on 01 892 0035 or by email at brandon.mclean@portobelloinstitute.com.

Part Time
Business of Fashion, Special Needs Assisting, Early Years 

Part-Time delivery at Portobello Institute is the most popular form of delivery for people who want to balance study around their full-time job and family life. This option is generally delivered through weekly evening classes and now consists of a combination of online learning and webinars.  

Denise Flood is College Director and Head of our Early Years Department, “Part-time delivery tends to be the SNAs and the Early Years programmes and they are done part-time delivery to fit in with people’s lives and to fit in with the time that’s available to them.  

“They can be done evening times, weekends, fitting in around people who are working full time, and people who aren’t in a hurry to finish a qualification...They do it maybe one subject at a time or maybe do a couple of subjects at a time, but they do them working in and around their lives. 

Brandon McLean is Director of Enrolment at Portobello, “Part-time courses tend to suit those students who are changing careers and want to continue working as they learn or for anyone who wants to get their qualification through free time they have in the evenings.” 

The structure varies between courses but online webinars generally feature heavily. Online webinars are lecturers delivering a presentation or class online to a group of students. Specially designed e-learning software is used so students can participate in class as if they were present in the same room.

You can ask questions and these sessions are recorded to watch back later.

Course materials are made available on a week-by-week basis. You can download them from our e-learning platform as you progress through your course. Assignments are designed to be completed from home and can be uploaded to the e-learning platform. You will also received feedback and your results there.

As an example, this process allows the ECCE with Montessori Teaching course to be delivered over one academic year but students spend only one evening per week covering Montessori modules.

Intensive  
Special Needs Assisting, Early Years

Portobello's intensive delivery method is only available in two courses: Special Needs Assisting Level 5 and Level 6 and Montessori Teaching.

These courses are both structured for the intensive delivery method but with their own unique layouts.

Special Needs Assisting Level 5 and Level 6 are combined into one course taught over two weeks of daytime classes. There is then 20 weeks to complete six assignments. This is our most popular course at Portobello and there is a booking package available.

George Boylan is the Special Needs Assisting course advisor, "Students cover Level 5 on the first week and then Level 6 on the second week. There are three assignments for Level 5 and then three more for Level 6. Each assignment averages about 1,500 words so there is a good bit of work to be done once the course content is covered."

The intense nature of the course allows you to go from having never studied Special Needs Assisting to completing your course within five months. Portobello can supply a pre-certificate to each student who has completed and pass their course so they don't have to wait until they get their certificate from the QQI to start working.

Montessori Teaching is a four-week course delivered from Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. The intensive course qualifies you to work in a Montessori classroom and open your own Montessori school.

Each week is split between the practical Montessori approach and theory learning. Each module features practical elements, which include practicing the Montessori presentation skills required to be a Montessori teacher, and theory that lead up to the Practical Skills Test in week 4 of the programme.

When the four-week course has been completed, the students are then given a six-month timetable to work on six assignments. These assignments must demonstrate their understanding of the theory underpinning each module. This will also include 50 hours of work experience.