D Monday, January 18, 2010 metrolifeextra 13 extra FurtherEducationSpecialmetro life A return to top form IRELAND has been hit by major climatic events over the last few months and Engineers Ireland is responding by organising a seminar on Flood Prevention, Control and Management on January 28 in its Ballsbridge offices. Environment Minister John Gormley will address the audience along with experts from both the private and public sectors. Floods are a natural hazard and flood events are here to stay. Effective strategies are essential to protect vulnerable communities and critical infrastructure. Engineering solutions such as arterial drainage and waterbed dredging must now be augmented by softer, more sustainable flood-management systems in harmony with nature. The increasing scale of events from Hurricane Charlie in 1985 to the current emergency in terms of areas flooded, material damage and adverse impact on householders, farmers, communities and businesses suggests that natural flood disasters must be better managed in the future to avoid recurring episodes. Ultimately, insurance cover for such events will simply be unavailable and state support for victims may be inadequate. Partial solutions are no solution and serve mainly to relocate the problem. Floods dont respect local authority boundaries, and an integrated approach to implementing the Floods Directive, the Water Framework Directive and other water-resource legislation at national and at catchment level is required, with a focus on nature and the hydrological cycle. Land use in flood plains should contribute to natural flood routing and attenuation and should not result in the hardship being experienced now by dwellers as a result of bad planning. Considerable costly retro-fitting and remedial works will be required to protect life and property in flood plains where the built environment has already transgressed the laws of nature. All in all, this seminar should be of interest not only to professionals working in the field but to all people involved in any way with property management or development as well as the general public, who are welcome to attend. Flood Prevention, Control and Management, 9.15am, January 28, Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Road, D4. Tel: (01) 665 1305. www.engineersireland.ie Getting out of this floody mess Back to education: Returning to education while still working full time seems daunting, but one fathers story shows it can be done. By ROSS MCDONAGH J uggling your working life, social life and family life and returning to education sounds like a trick learned in clown college but there are far more prestigious schools teaching it. Meet Liam OBrien, a 37-year- old, married father of two, working full time in sort manufacturing for Intel, who wondered if it was possible to further his education. Luckily, Dublin Institute of Technology arrived at his job one day and provided the very answer. Run in co-ordination with ICT Ireland, DITs MSc Technology and Innovation Management programme allowed Liam to continue working as normal, studying at the college for two days every two weeks for one year and two days per month for a second year. And as of November 2009, Liam holds a masters with first-class honours. I have the graduation cert hanging on the wall the sense of achievement from this is just fantastic, he says. Im still on a high, I am fairly buzzed about it. I did find it tough because of my age. Im quite a few years out of college, so getting back into the academic side was tough. But the satisfaction in receiving my masters totally outweighed any of it; it makes you forget the pain. While Liam was lucky to be able to rely on support from his wife and from his bosses, his good sense of time management was his most valuable tool. If you stay on top of the work, you can keep it fairly well structured. If you do assignments as per their due date, its a fairly continuous flow, he says. Liam says tutors at DIT very strongly recommend proper time-management. I found, with the proper schedule, that it did work, though I am fairly good at time- keeping. Letting it slip wouldnt be advisa- ble, he says. So would Liam recommend going back to education? Absolutely, without hesitation. The management team really appreciate what Ive done and the benefits I am able to bring back to the job. Liam with his family after graduation Business & Management Forensic Psychology Computer Studies Humanities FETAC Level 5 & 6 Project Management Diploma PMI Supervisory Management FETAC L 6 CIPD Certificate in Personnel Practice Employment Law FETAC L6 Train The Trainer FETAC L6 Diploma in Crime & Forensic Psychology Diploma in Hi-Tech Crime ECDL-European Computer Driving Licence JEB / EDI Teachers Diploma ICTS CompTIA A+ / Linux+ / CISCO CCNA / MCTIP (formerly MCSA) Website Design: Site Designer Professional Montessori Teaching Diploma (3-6 Years) Special Needs Assistant Advanced Supervision in Childcare L 6 Dorset College www.dorset-college.ie T (01) 830 9677 C I T Y C E N T R E - E V E N I N G C O U R S E S tel:(01) 283 4579 email:fitzinst@iol.ie Public Relations Institute of IrelandAccredited Dip. Event Man. Association ofAdvertisers in IrelandAccredited Dip.Online Mkt.&Adv. DIPLOMA IN ONLINE MARKETING & ADVERTISING with Online PR & E-Commerce 24th February 2010 www.FITZWILLIAMINSTITUTE.ie Public Relations Institute of IrelandAccredited DIPLOMA IN EVENT MANAGEMENT with PR, Eco-Events & Wedding Planning 22nd February 2010 Dip.PR OneYear DIPLOMA IN PUBLIC RELATIONS with Online PR & EVENT MANAGEMENT 23rd February 2010 Enrol before 31st January 2010 to receive 100 off Course Fee Also Available by Distance Learning ICD BUSINESS S C H O O L ENROLLINGNOW! NewSemesterStartsFeb22nd ICD Business School, BPP House, 5 Lad Lane, Dublin 2 Tel: 01 6629386 E-mail: admin@icd.ie Web: www.icd.ie Honours Degrees and Diplomas (Day & Evening) CHANGEYOURCAREERAND ENHANCEYOURCAREERPROSPECTS Marketing HRM Law Management Accounting Finance Business Computing www.engineersireland.ie FLOOD PREVENTION CONTROL & MANAGEMENT SEMINAR 28 January 2010 @ Engineers Ireland Will address the major issues.Contact: cpdtraining@engineersireland.ie tel: 01 665 1305 index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html