# Irish community charity receives £90,000 from City & Guilds Group fund

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/08/16/irish-community-charity-receives-90000-city-guilds-group-fund/
- Published: 2016-08-16T10:00:04+01:00
- Author: Melanie May

Dublin-based charity, [An Cosán Virtual Community College](http://www.ancosanvcc.com)(
VCC), has secured £90,000 of funding from the [City & Guilds Group](https://www.cityandguildsgroup.com/)’
s £5m Skills Development Fund to deliver training to disadvantaged women.

The VCC is a new development, which builds on the work of [An Cosán](http://www.ancosan.ie/),
a community education centre that has served the community of Tallaght West for 
30 years. VCC was set up to provide accessible and relevant distance learning to
those who have not benefitted from mainstream education.

The charity will receive the funding over two years for its Social Entrepreneurship
and Leadership programme (SEL) which will reach 36 women, with the aim of rolling
out across Ireland in the future. The programme aims to deliver training for leadership,
social enterprise development and community sustainability to women who have been
disadvantaged through unemployment, underemployment and lack of access to further
or higher education.

## Advertisement

The City & Guilds Group launched the [Skills Development Fund](http://www.cityandguildsgroup.com/skillsdevelopmentfund)
in September 2015 to support projects and communities across the world to create
long-term, sustainable change through skills. Grants have previously been awarded
to four charities across the UK and Ghana: Afrikids, St Giles Trust, The Change 
Foundation and Global Generation.

Elizabeth Waters, director at An Cosán said:

> “Our SEL programme will place social enterprise at the heart of disadvantaged 
> communities by developing the women’s leadership and social enterprise skills 
> so they can implement solutions and help create social change.”

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