An Irish perspective on education and training in credit unions

Education and training are essential elements of co-operative practice embodied within the co-operative principles. A problem common to many types of co-operative is that the level of commitment shown towards education and training can be weak at best, and often diminishes as they become more established and as the size of the membership and scale of operations grow. This leads to many difficulties, and for some, eventual demutualisation. The motto ‘no study, no credit union’, first coined by the founders of the Irish credit union movement, is indicative of the fundamental importance of education and training to Irish credit unions. This paper reports on a study of the level of commitment shown by well-established Irish credit unions to the education and training of credit union activists (including both staff and volunteers). It shows that the commitment of a credit union to education and training does not always diminish over time but that its focus often changes in response to changing needs. Centre for Co-operative Studies, UCC 2 No Study, No Credit Union: An Irish perspective on education and training in credit unions Noreen Byrne, Olive McCarthy & Michael Ward