Unemployed may get college places

THIRD-LEVEL colleges are likely to be asked to offer spare places to some of the thousands of people joining the dole queues every week.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe is formulating proposals for the cabinet, along with Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister and Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, and Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin.

They have been consulting with State enterprise body Forfás and jobs investment group IDA Ireland to identify the employment areas where the most immediate need for qualified workers will be in the coming years.

“We’re looking at how we can provide additional places and how we might transfer additional resources,” said Mr O’Keeffe.

However, it is unclear at this point if the Government will be willing to push extra funds into the plan or if the cost of providing these places will have to be diverted from elsewhere in any of the three minister’s budgets.

The minister was unable to indicate either if he will lift the long-standing cap of 30,000 places on Post Leaving Certificate courses run mostly by Vocational Education Committees, which many education experts suggest are best placed to help upskill people.

But, with the Central Bank predicting this week that 100,000 people would lose their jobs over the next year, Mr O’Keeffe acknowledged there will be serious implications for the Government.

“There are institutes of technology last year which were not absolutely full on all courses,” he said.

“We’ll also be asking the universities to see what scope there is, because obviously professional people will be joining the Live Register as well,” he said.