Teacher union dismay as training places go to FÁS

THE Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) said it was regrettable that just as it was making its case for the education sector getting most of the 51,000 extra training places for the newly unemployed yesterday, news broke that FÁS was to get all of them.

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.