Fás bosses draw up plans for revamp

FÁS management have drawn up a major reconfiguration plan for the state training agency after an internal report found problems with over half the private companies contracted to provide courses for the unemployed.

The plan, which could see the rebranding of the organisation, will be considered tomorrow at a meeting of the Fás board and forwarded to the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills Mary Coughlan.

The move comes a day after it was confirmed that details of the activities of at least two private training companies have been forwarded to the gardaí for investigation into possible fraud.

Releasing a review of the performance of 304 training courses delivered by external training companies, Fás director general Paul O’Toole reassured trainees that: “While the review highlights areas requiring a need for considerable improvements, there is a relatively small number of cases with serious issues which Fás is working to resolve.

“Other learners should be assured of the quality of their certification. All assessments are examined and certified in accordance with industry standards. We apologise to any affected learners and commit to the improvement plans detailed in this review.”

In total, the review dealt with 32,700 assessments, concerning 4,825 trainees.

Although some problems where found with the delivery of 54% of the courses reviewed, only 14% of these difficulties were serious enough to be deemed as “noncompliance” with Fás standards.

This represented 43 courses and 718 trainees who had to have their grades reassessed.

The two unidentified training providers the report associates with serious difficulties have been removed from the National Register of Trainers.

In the case of Ashfield Training – not dealt with in the yesterday’s report as difficulties with it predated the term of the reviews investigation – Mr O’Toole said the agency is seeking to recover €121,776 from the training provider, though this is unlikely as the company had gone into liquidation.

Around 25% of the 100,000 unemployed people training with Fás last year took courses with private companies.

Mr O’Toole accepted that Fás systems of monitoring these companies had not been up to pace with their extensive use after the onset of the unemployment crisis in 2008. He said the level of use of such trainers was being reconsidered in the reconfiguration plan.