Teacher union dismay as training places go to FÁS
TUI general secretary Peter MacMenamin said the bulk of the additional training places, announced by Taoiseach Brian Cowen on Tuesday, should have gone to the vocational education committees and institutes of technology.
The union said its members in VECs and institutes of technology already had the expertise to provide the skills needed by the newly unemployed to get them back into the workforce quickly.
The TUI had just launched their six-point plan on how education could kick-start economic recovery when Tánaiste Mary Coughlan announced that FÁS is to get the extra training places.
Mr MacMenamin, who was stunned by the news, said the decision was regrettable.
“The whole tenor of what we are saying today is that we believe the education sector is best place to provide the training courses for the reasons we have given,” he said.
Earlier, the union published a policy document setting out urgent recommendations on developing a knowledge economy.
It has also called for access to further and higher courses to be improved and made simpler and called for the immediate abolition of fees for part-times courses.
The union has also called for a lifting of the cap on the number of students in post Leaving Certificate colleges.
Mr MacMenamin said the cap, imposed several years ago by the Department of Education and Science was counterproductive to the move to economic recovery.
He said the sector was ideally placed to meet the commercial and industrial needs of the local community. Courses could be adapted to maximise local employment and potential of participants.
He also called for a review of eligibility criteria for further and higher education and the expansion of part-time education at further and third level.
He said a person must be over 21 and in receipt of social welfare payments for at least six months to be eligible for second-chance education under some programmes.
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