Category:Graduation of Military Students from the Institute of Technology Carlow, 5 November 2014

Minister of State Mr Paul Kehoe T.D accompanied by the Deputy Chief of Staff (Operations) of the Defence Forces Major General Ralph James, attended the conferring of 223 Defence Forces graduates at Carlow Institute of Technology on Friday 07th of November.

Drawn from all Formations and Brigades of the Defence Forces the 223 graduates have successfully completed elements of the Leadership, Management and Defence (LMDS) programme. This training and education programme is of major significance to the educational recognition of training conducted by the Defence Forces.

The Higher Education Training and Awards Council (HETAC) approved the validation of Defence Forces enlisted personnel career courses for awards under the National Framework of Qualifications in 2012 and Friday's ceremony is the second conferral under that scheme.

The aim of the award is to validate the lifelong and taught learning that soldiers, sailors and airmen and women of the Defence Forces complete throughout their military careers. It captures the training from completion of a soldier’s initial training to completion of the most advanced training programmes that they can complete. It also takes into account the experiential learning personnel glean from their operational deployments and work both at home and overseas