"Bridgetown Vocational College (BVC) is an Irish secondary school in Bridgetown, County Wexford, Ireland, managed by the Wexford and Waterford Education and Training Board. " Technical education in Ireland has a history that stretches back over hundreds of years. The Dublin Philosophical Society was founded in 1683 followed by the Royal Dublin Society in 1731. These learned bodies sought to promote improvements in agricultural husbandry, manufacture and the useful arts and to promote the study of the sciences. These initiatives saw the development of a number of regional centres. These in turn paved the way for the popular Mechanics' Institutes one of which was subsequently located in Wexford town. During the nineteenth century official bodies such as the Commissioners for National Education (1831) and the Department of Science and Art (1851) extended state support to technical and manual instruction. In 1893 the Technical Education Association of Ireland was founded and it articulated the need for a national system of technical training. 1899 saw the passing of the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act.