A  Geo Drilling Apprenticeship initiated in 2020 is supported by the drilling industry, Geoscience Ireland and all the main geoscience and geotechnical societies in Ireland, along with state and semi state agencies.

Since 2020, 30 Apprentices have completed the course which is delivered by South Eastern Technological University SETU at its Carlow campus.

Since its inception in 2020, the Irish Mining and Quarrying Society IMQS  has awarded a Silver Medal to the two best Apprentices each year. For 2024, the IMQS Silver Medals Awards went to Jason Rehill of Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) and Conor Horan of Causeway Geotech.

Both GSI and Causeway are members of Geoscience Ireland.

A Donegal native, Jason has been with GSI for 4 years, having previously worked for Causeway. GSI is currently drilling a 1 Km deep hole for geothermal energy information for Offaly County  Council.

Pictured above at the Medal Awards in Navan (from left):

Joe Mongan (Geoscience Ireland, Principal Contact for the Apprenticeship), Jason Rehill (GSI), Alan Dolan (President IMQS) and Sean Finlay (Geoscience Ireland and Chair of the GeoDrilling Steering Committee)

Conor hails from Sligo and has been with Causeway for 2 years. Prior to that he worked in construction in Canada. He has a Marketing Degree from IT Sligo but prefers the hands-on nature of the drilling business. Causeway specialises in geotechnical engineering. Both Jason and Conor are very strong in their support of the course at SETU, finding it to be very well delivered, varied and wide ranging.

Pictured above at the Medal Awards in Navan (from left):

Joe Mongan (Geoscience Ireland, Principal Contact for the Apprenticeship), Conor Horan (Causeway), Alan Dolan (President IMQS) and Sean Finlay (Geoscience Ireland and Chair of the GeoDrilling Steering Committee)

Missing from the photos is Ger Keohane, Director of the Geo Drilling Course at SETU.