Skerry's College
This again was an immediate success and formed an integral part of the College’s expanding empire and played a vital role in supplementing and cementing what was offered in the day and evening classes.
[3][4] There are grounds for assuming that George Stewart was a man of vision, judgement and a driving force who ‘remained a firm believer in the freedom and initiative of the private school’.
[1] Prior to the change of ownership, activities were confined to catering for the Civil Service; but, once it was consolidated, the College in the early 1890s embarked on a scheme of important extensions.
It broadened its curricula to meet requirements of university and professional preliminaries, and inaugurated office training in shorthand and typewriting.
[3] The keynote of the College was "Progress", and it kept abreast of the times by developing its courses of training and devising new methods to meet altering conditions.
The toast "Skerry’s College" was proposed by Sir Robert Wilson and replied to by Mr. George Stewart, eldest son of the late principal.
[1] Since World War II – in conditions of ‘overspill’ employment- there had been a considerable falling-off in the number of young people seeking admission to the services of the Crown.
As part of re-organisation and expansion the governor, to ease accommodation at Liverpool, acquired an attractive building in Birkenhead standing on its own grounds; this was equipped and opened as Sherwood Grammar School.
Six months later, to meet an even greater need at Newcastle, Claremont School, situated about ten minutes’ walk from the main building, was opened.
[1] While the chief goal of the colleges in Scotland had been preparation for Scottish universities and professional preliminary examinations, as well as commercial work, the main emphasis of the English colleges lay within the sphere of commercial and office training courses, with some preparatory and grammar school work alongside.
[9] The suffragette and co-operative activist Margaret McCoubrey, a Labour councillor for Dock ward in Belfast, taught in the Skerry's Business Training College, Glasgow, where she became deputy head mistress at the age of twenty-four.
The teacher and writer Thomas Evans Jacob (1853–1908) taught in Skerry's College London and produced a number of civil service exam texts.
At that time, Skerry's offered a special class for students studying for university matriculation and also specialised in bank courses for which a nomination was required.
The subjects for the Munster & Leinster Bank course at the time were: English, French, Arithmetic, Totting, Typewriting and Shorthand.
About this time also, the various County Councils began to hold competitive examinations for clerical shorthand/typists, and Skerry's students always secured the majority of the vacancies.
In 1994, Skerry's College Cork was designated as an institution to which the Irish Governments National Council for Educational Awards (NCEA) Act, 1979.
Skerry's Cork Business College was designated as a Computer Based Examination Provider for the ACCA Certified Accounting Technician (CAT) course.
Certain full-time undergraduate HETAC level 6 & 7 courses were also validated to receive tax relief under the Irish Government's 1997 Act.
[21] Skerry’s College alumni have several prominent members including the former Taoiseach, Jack Lynch, the former Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Peter Barry, and former South Kerry TD Breeda Moynihan-Cronin.
In 1919, Tom Barry famous for his role in the Irish War of Independence and book on the Flying Columns, enrolled in Skerry's College.
