Training Matchmaker

What do you plan to learn next? Learn about the exciting opportunities Nils, from Vienna, discovered during his Erasmus adventure in Belfast. Follow his journey and insights on his blog, where he shares tips, stories, and advice for making the most of your own learning experience.

-> follow the link in bio to read Nils´s learning plan

📍 Creative Space
Belfast Central Library

Find inspiration from the learning log of Anna-Lena from Austria - Anna-Lena lived and worked in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK for a month and clocked up many learning achievements in this time

Visit the blog on the website to find out what learning opportunities she found and what new learning she put into practice throughout her work placement in marketing and admin

📸 📍 - one of a number of on the go remote work locations during her placement. Photo by Chiho

Find inspiration from the learning log of Johanna from Austria - Johanna lived and worked in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK for a month and clocked up many learning achievements in this time

Visit the blog on the website to find out what learning opportunities she found and what new learning she put into practice throughout her work placement in marketing and admin

📸 📍 - one of a number of on the go remote work locations during her placement. Photo by Chiho

Find ideas and inspiration for your next learning goal from Anna-Lena‘s learning plan blog
>link in bio

Anna-Lena 🇦🇹 is in Belfast on an Erasmus traineeship facilated by

📸
📍 Lisburn road library, Belfast

What do you plan to learn next? Find out about the opportunities Johanna, from Lower Austria, uncovered during her time on Erasmus in Belfast
-> follow the link in bio and read Johanna´s learning plan

📸
📍 Lisburn road library, Belfast

GmbH

Say hello to Erasmus trainees Anna-Lena and Johanna from Austria.

With a month in Belfast to experience the culture and improve their language and work based skills they’ve been introduced by to lots of different free and paid, face to face and online learning opportunities.

Find out what skills they seek to develop on their learning plan blogs coming soon to the training matchmaker website

📸 Creative Space (Belfast Central Library)

With thanks to for providing with a great place to work in Belfast city

When we go to meet one of our Marketing Angel Trainees in Dungannon Library & happen upon a Macmillan Cancer Support Coffee Morning

🍰Country homemade sweets galore

… sure it’s only dessert when it’s after a main meal isn’t it?

The library as always operates an
‘All Welcome’ policy

Libraries NI
Macmillan in Northern Ireland

Look up. Move up. Skill up.

, with funding from the and the , is supporting free short courses, delivered by local further and higher education providers across Northern Ireland.

There are up to 7,000 free places available until end of June 2023 with many more to follow in the next few years.

Opportunities are available from entry to postgraduate levels, & focus on skills identified by industry, linked to priority economic sectors, including:

✅ digital skills
✅ green technologies
✅ healthcare and life sciences
✅ advanced manufacturing
✅ leadership and management

Most courses will be delivered online and will provide an opportunity to re-skill and upskill into areas where job growth is expected to be high.

Find out what courses are available from local colleges and universities right across NI including .ac.uk online - simply google ‘Skill Up Northern Ireland’ or pop onto a learning providers website

📝 Do note deadlines & eligibility criteria:
“To take part in a Skill Up course or programme, you must be: Over 18 years of age; Eligible to work in Northern Ireland; 'Settled' in Northern Ireland, and has been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least three years; or is a person who has indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK.”

🗓 Be quick: Many of these courses start soon & registration for Open University’s 23 Skill Up courses on offer, from post graduate to micro credential - courses worth up to £3,200 for example closes on 8 September 2022!

From Belfast south to Belfast east and into Belfast west and north… this month has been busy delivering smart phones - refurbished digital devices - direct to our learners in need as part of the National Device Bank pilot programme.

To meet our goal of inspiring learning we need to tackle digital exclusion and take steps to .

We can’t wait to hear about all the learning achieved and positive outcomes realised from each of our learners who received one of these devices as part of the pilot scheme.

Find out more about the National Device Bank and the National Data Bank over on the Good Things Foundation website.

Training Matchmaker is an online centre of Good Things Foundation.

At TrainingMatchmaker] we are all about ‘inspiring learning’ - that includes tackling obstacles to learning as well as signposting people to learning opportunities.

This week we’ve continued our work as part of the National DataBank gifting data to learners in south Belfast & beyond to help them ‘Get Connected’ and access and benefit from online learning.

If you find yourself in data poverty and are unable to get learning as a result then do get in touch - send us a private message today!

About the National Databank:
The National Databank provides free sims and mobile data (as well as talk minutes and texts) to people in need via Good Things Foundation’s network of local community partners. It’s like a ‘food bank’ but for internet connectivity data. Community organisations such as TrainingMatchmaker] access the databank in order to provide data to people in their communities who need it - in our case: Northern Ireland.

The team are really grateful for having a ‘hotspot’ ability this working week.

Grateful that we have it, know about it & know how to use it.

We’ve used it for:

👩🏻‍💻working on the go
&
👩🏻‍💻to bypass a free WIFI that doesn’t allow access to Facebook, Instagram & Twitter - a wee problem needing a quick & easy solution when working on social media marketing in practice and trying to access social media learning resources

If there are times when you need to use your mobile data for another device or to get internet access on your laptop or computer then check out the learning signposts on

📲 https://makeitclick.learnmyway.com/directory/subjects/working-from-home/hot-to-set-up-a-personal-hotspot-on-your-iphone

📲 https://makeitclick.learnmyway.com/directory/subjects/working-from-home/share-a-mobile-connection-by-tethering-or-hotspot-on-android

& if you find yourself unable to learn when out and about because you are lacking in mobile data then get in touch as our online learning centre is part of the National Databank by and we are in a position to distribute a limited number of SIM cards with free calls, texts & 7GB of data per month for up to 6 months to our learners and aspiring learners across Northern Ireland.

From old school books and face to face tuition to new digital courses and teaching by zoom at any time of the day or night.

At TrainingMatchmaker] we are here to inspire learning this 2022 & beyond.

So what are you waiting for?

Find inspiration & opportunity with TrainingMatchmaker]

From the team at - we wish you all a Happy Christmas

Before closes for the Christmas break we are working away as busy elves giving the gift of data to help the digitally excluded get online this Christmas and for the next 6 months.

If you want to get learning but find yourself without a stable connection to the internet or know someone in this situation then do get in touch - you can private message our team via Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.