Travellers get training course snub

TRAVELLERS keen to get into the workplace are not even getting as far as job training courses because of barriers caused by discrimination and apathy.

A study by the Equality Authority discovered that training bodies like FÁS, CERT, Teagasc, Coillte and the Vocational Education Committees had few programmes or policies sensitive to members of the Travelling community and rarely made an effort to encourage Travellers to take part.

Interviewees told researchers that trainers did not trust Travellers and one related how classroom doors were kept locked when the teachers were not around.

Some said Travellers were always lumped together on a course regardless of how their educational qualifications or skill levels compared with each other and the settled participants.

Some complained that they were sent from course to course without any real expectation that they would ever work, as demonstrated by one man whose skill and interest lay in woodwork but who was sent on a childcare programme. Others did not know there were training courses in their area because advertisements inviting applicants were all of the written kind, even for manual skills programmes, and Travellers with literacy problems or who did not frequent community centres could not see or read them.

And because training providers did not go out and actively seek Traveller participants or even speak to them about the opportunities available, a perception had grown among rural male Travellers that training courses were only for women.

Training bodies, meanwhile, displayed a high level of apathy, with one training provider remarking that the special needs of Travellers was not an issue because no Travellers applied for any of the courses provided.

The main recommendation from the study is that a dedicated body be set up to bring Travellers into courses and support them throughout their training and subsequent job search.

It also calls on the Government to set aside funds to create public sector jobs in the health, education and training sectors to be filled specifically by Travellers upon completion of State-funded training courses in those fields. The study was carried out to investigate the reasons behind the findings of research published earlier this year which found that just 9% of Travellers were in mainstream employment and that the overall position of Travellers in the labour market had worsened during the Celtic Tiger years.

Many Travellers fell at the first hurdle, failing entry requirements to courses and apprenticeships because of an over-emphasis on Leaving Certificate results when few Travellers finished second level.