The GoalMine Second Level Schools Programme is delivered to Transition Year students at 'DEIS Schools' (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), having a direct impact on socially, economically, or educationally disadvantaged individuals and communities.

The GoalMine Programme is designed to align with general Transition Year Programme Guidelines set out by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) for schools:

“Pupils will participate in learning strategies which are active and experiential, and which help them to develop a range of transferable critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills. The Transition Year should also provide an opportunity for pupils to reflect on and develop an awareness of the value of education and training in preparing them for the ever-changing demands of the adult world of work and relationships.”

Taking place over two days per participating schools, students use the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030 to identify a social innovation challenge. To aim of GoalMine is to provide students attending a DEIS post-primary schools access to a programme that will help them to identify and explore their individual entrepreneurial, creative, and innovative mind-set and fundamental thinking skills to develop solutions to future problem-solving situations. The programme equips students with entrepreneurial skills, which will prove important as the world seeks to rebuild post Covid19.

GoalMine facilitators incorporate experiential and inclusive techniques to deliver the programme such as design thinking tools, lego innovative development sets, indoor/outdoor leadership skill-based challenges, AR/VR simulation software, consumer/client testing tools and other resources.

At the heart of creating solutions for global challenges is creative thinking. Developing this skill enables young people to find opportunities that help improve situations in which finding a solution is difficult. It also helps them see the problems they face from another perspective.

Norma Foley TD, Minister for Education, Ireland (on announcing Dormant Account Funding for the GoalMine programme):

“I have been so impressed by the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit from a scientific and technological viewpoint, displayed by all of the Transition Year students who have taken part in the GoalMine project thus far. I am delighted to announce this funding today which will ensure that the GoalMine project can extend its reach to even more students and schools going forward.”

GoalMine - Scaling for the Future

The Higher Education Authority has funded GoalMine under its Entrepreneurship Summer Camps initiative since 2017 and the Transition Year programme will roll out to DEIS schools across the southwest region of Ireland in 2023, funded through the Dorman Accounts Fund.

Continuing this scale, GoalMine aims to become the national transition year entrepreneurship programme following a two-year pilot.