|
Mr. Paul O'Toole: Yes. One is looking at that. I suppose the other point is that FÁS does not provide employment. FÁS training helps people to compete in a labour market, which is the most difficult it has been for as long as I can remember. We are one part of the equation. We are helping people gain entry level and intermediate skills within our remit which gives them a better chance of competing for the jobs available.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell:   I accept all of that. How many new courses has FÁS brought in and dropped in the past two years? Are its courses fit for purpose?
Mr. Paul O'Toole: The Deputy raised that question with us previously. We have made a very significant improvement to our course provision. Over the past number of years, we have either developed new or redeveloped over 100 courses, in conjunction with FETAC.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell: Out of how many?
Mr. Paul O'Toole: We would have had a bank of 300 to 400 courses. A lot of those are inactive. We have looked at changing the mix. Traditionally, FÁS was known for providing construction-related courses, and we still do a small proportion of those. There are still 100,000 people employed in construction, notwithstanding the challenges of the sector. However, we have moved into areas we believe are more relevant to current labour market conditions and, as I said, are helping people to access service level jobs. ICT, for example, is topical and a lot of the demand there is at the top end of the scale. This year, or maybe last year, we put in place 6,000 places at entry and intermediate level for ICT skills that are relevant to the ICT industry. There is a huge demand from learners, unemployed people, for programmes which help them in digital literacy and we are satisfying that demand, in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell: How many courses has FÁS dropped in the past two years?
Mr. Paul O'Toole: I will ask my colleague, Dr. Fields, how many we have made inactive.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell: How many courses has FÁS deactivated and how many new courses has it brought in? What is the turnover of the courses?
Dr. Bryan Fields: We have approximately 40 new and updated courses to meet FETAC awards which were introduced last year. We have de facto dropped 40 courses.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell: Out of a complement of how many?
Dr. Bryan Fields: Approximately 300 plus.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell: Roughly, one is talking about 13%, or just over one in ten courses. Does Dr. Fields think that is adequate?
Dr. Bryan Fields: We have a bank of courses on which we draw in terms of the suitability of them, or the labour market demand at a particular time. For example, in the past 15 years, we have developed in the region of approximately 40 traineeships, of which we have a bank of approximately 20 plus that are suitable for the current environment. We are running in the region of ten of those currently.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell: How many of the people who came through training or job-related courses in the past two years have ended up in employment?
Mr. Paul O'Toole: We have preliminary figures from a study which has not yet been published. It is literally a preliminary study and field work is being done, so there are caveats to that. Of our very market-led courses, the best performing would be traineeships and 60% of those people are getting jobs. The next batch would be around 45% plus getting jobs having exited a course.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell: Is Mr. O'Toole saying that just over 50% of people doing FÁS courses end up in jobs - 60% of trainees and 45% of all others?
Mr. Paul O'Toole: I will get the Deputy the exact figures but it would be in or around that. They are on the courses that are primarily economic-driven. We also do a lot of work for programmes which are social inclusion and equity based.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell: Is there a tracking system in that having done a course, FÁS knows whether somebody is in employment? Mr. O'Toole spoke about a survey. When somebody does a course, has FÁS some way of knowing what he or she is doing over the following 12 months? Is there a database to see if courses are fulfilling the criteria for the market and to ensure people get jobs?
Mr. Paul O'Toole: As the Deputy knows, in the past FÁS had responsibility for both the employment services and the training but it no longer has that. However, we work in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection to ensure there is a flow of data between the Department and ourselves and at a macro level informing the Department of Education and Skills. We have certain tracking systems but as the Secretary General said earlier, we are developing new systems. As part of the development work from Intreo and the development of SOLAS and the new education and training boards, we will develop a new learner database that will plug in and integrate with the Intreo system, so that we can improve our more direct tracking of individuals.
Deputy Kieran O'Donnell: I refer to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. Obviously, coming from Limerick and given what happened with Dell, I have a particular interest in it. In regard to the funding which has been returned to the EU, in Dell's case, 40% was returned. Interestingly, in the case of Waterford Crystal, it was a low as 20% while in the case of SR Technics, it was 60%. In terms of NACE 41, construction of buildings, 35% was returned, in the case of NACE 43, specialised construction activities, it was 39% and in NACE 71, architectural services construction, it was 15%. Why is there such a disparity? It looks as if approximately €23 million of EU funding will be returned, which has to be queried.
In the case of Dell, the reason was the application process. I was able to download the application from the EU website but it did not match the requirements of many of the people. A large amount of it was to do with courses they would not attend. The amount put towards people going down the self-employed route was very small and that is borne out by the fact that in July 2012, of the number of people employed by Dell, only 67 of them, which was fewer than 5%, were self-employed. I know many of the people from Dell and there was a huge entrepreneurial spirit in Dell.
If the application process was right, nothing would be returned to the EU. Some €23 million in funding from the EU should have been spent. How is there such a disparity in the level of refunds between the different groups? Will Mr. O'Toole tell me about the application process which was grossly deficient in the context of Dell? I studied the application process and it did not match the overall requirements. The people involved in the implementation of the EGAF on the ground - I think at that point they were from FÁS - were very good but they were constrained by what was in the application.
A general approach on the Commission's proposal for a regulation on the EGAF 2014-2020 has been agreed. One of the weaknesses of the original application for those in Dell was that one could not transfer between different categories. One could not switch between the self-employed or the third level categories, for example. Given the way the applications were made, funds were going to be returned because they could not be spent as they did not cater for the needs of people in Dell.
|
Page of 22
