Dr Emma Bolger

It is Seachdain na Gàidhlig - World Gaelic Week 2026! On Wednesday 25th February, I will be sharing publicly for the first time some of the findings from my research on the impact of Gaelic Medium Education on young people’s careers. As the keynote speaker at the Career Development Institute Conference (Scotland), I will be speaking about the career value of Gaelic Medium Education. The keynote will cover: An overview of Gaelic Medium Education Why there is a need for specific research into Gaelic Medium Education and careers A summary of the research project, Gaelic Medium Education: a career advantage for school leavers in Scotland? funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, under the Research Incentive Grant Scheme (Principal Investigator: Dr Emma Bolger, Research Assistant: Ann Morrison) The research findings indicate that Gaelic appears to offer career-long benefits, during education, post-school and into the early stages of adulthood, particularly in enhan...

Volunteering has always been important to me. I previously volunteered for charities and causes that have been close to my heart; for example, fundraising for and representing Breast Cancer Now and Beat . And long before this, as a child and into my teens I was a cadet with the St John Ambulance . Volunteer work as parent My volunteering these days is more focused on education and advocating for children, parents/guardians. I was asked to set up and I continue to chair the parent council for my children's newly established primary school which has been a real learning experience. Having valued their support throughout this, I have long championed the work of Connect  and joined their Board of Directors in 2023. As my children attend Gaelic Medium Education (GME), which is a growing route through state education in Scotland, I've also found myself sitting on number of working groups in relation to GME. Perhaps my increasing volunteer engagement in education would always...