Secondary education programmes

We offer five key secondary education programmes for students to gain a deeper understanding of challenges that people are facing in communities all over the world and support them to take action to make the world a better place for everyone.

Speak Act Do is Concern’s school programme to support teachers and students in taking action on some of the defining issues of our time - Climate Change, Conflict, Inequality, Poverty and Hunger. 

It is a six to eight week programme that works whatever the location or context of the school. It is designed to be flexible, led by the school and supported by the Concern schools team. It can be ran independently or embedded into CSPE, TY modules or Politics and Society. 

Schools who sign up receive a dedicated resource pack, support from the Concern schools team over the course of the programme, as well as school visits and the chance to attend events throughout the year!

Based on feedback from teachers, we have some exciting updates to Speak Act Do: 

• You can sign up and start the programme at any point in the year 
• We are hosting student kick off event on 30th September 
• There will be a chance to win prizes for best project and most innovative project for schools that submit their projects 
• Groups will be invited to record a podcast as part of their experience taking part in the programme
• We have developed *brand new* resources to support you to run Speak Act Do with your group

At the end of the project, students will present their projects at our annual student event, Agents of Change, and have a chance to win a prize! Agents of change will take place on 10th May 2023. 

We offer free workshops and talks for secondary schools on the following:

• Conflict
• Climate Change
• Gender Equality
• Poverty/Work of Concern
• Emergencies
• Hunger

Students will consider why these problems exist in the world today, how they affects people’s lives, how Concern support communities who are experiencing the issue and reflect on how they themselves can take action.

In 2022-2023, our workshops will be a mixture of in person and online. We will work with individual schools and the context that you are working in to provide workshops in a way that works best for your students.

We run full day workshops (10am-2.30pm) which bring students from different schools together to learn more about some of the key drivers of poverty, why they exist and how they impact on people's lives. 

In 2022-2023, we will be offering four full day workshops, with some exciting guest facilitators! 

• 30th September: The school kick off event - a day workshop to find out how you can take action this school year!*
• 13th October: World Food Day Workshop with Bloom the Art Project* 
• 24th January: International Day of Education with Fighting Words 
• 8th March: International Women’s Day Workshop 

*Teachers can nominate three students who attended the kick-off event to represent their school at a follow up workshop for World Food Day (13th October). Students will work with Bloom the Art Project to develop a mural which is going to be painted in the Concern office showing young people's vision for a hunger free world. Email schools@concern.net for more information about this special opportunity. 

Concern Debates is an All Island year long competition for senior cycle students. Each year, over 140 schools across the island of Ireland debate topics from climate change to corporate responsibility.

The programme gives students the opportunity to learn skills in research, critical thinking, and public speaking. It also helps students to reflect on, and try to tackle, some of the most important issues facing the world today. This year the programme is going online!

Interested in the Concern Debates?

TY Academy is a week-long work experience programme for young people who are interested in global issues and careers in development.

Participants learn about various teams in Concern from a wide range of staff - both overseas and in Ireland - and what their work entails. Staff on the ground in Ireland and overseas call in to detail the work they do to combat Climate Change, Gender Inequality, Conflict, Poverty, Hunger and how Concern responds to emergencies.

Participants also engage in project work over the week linked to the work of Concern, which they present to judges for feedback on the last day.

We will be running TY Academy in person in our Dublin office on the following weeks:

• 14th November – 18th November 2022 
• 30th January – 3rd February 2023 
• 27th February – 3rd March 2023
• 24th April – 28th April 2023

Please note that all weeks for TY Academy are now full and we have a very long waiting list. 

Applications for 2023/2024 will open in June 2023.