Empower students fear loss of €250k in probe

A PRIVATE training company collected more than €250,000 in student fees despite the gardaí and the Government being informed over six months ago that it was believed to be operating illegally.

Hundreds of people, most of whom have paid between €2,000 and €4,500 for courses, fear they may have lost their money after the sudden closure last Friday of the state-approved Empower Training of Kilkenny.

A recent report in the Irish Examiner revealed Empower was under investigation by the Garda fraud squad. Following this report, the firm’s directors Stephen Doran and Vivienne Hinton left the country.

Sums are believed to have been transferred from the company’s accounts prior to the husband and wife director team’s departure. The couple are believed to be in Cyprus possibly en route to Australia.

Last night, the state agency Skillnets confirmed it had informed gardaí and the Government as far back as February 15 that they were investigating Empower for serious breaches, including the issuing of false training certificates.

A Skillnets spokeswoman said it specifically informed Fás and the state certification body FETAC by telephone on February 15 that Skillnets had concerns about the training provider and was commencing a full investigation. Both agencies were informed in writing in late March that Skillnets was informing the GBFI (the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation) about the initial findings. The Skillnets investigation concluded that Empower had issued Waterford Institute of Technology certificates which were not genuine and had taken payment for courses that had not occurred.

Following this correspondence, Fás ended all involvement with Empower Training but the company continued to be authorised to run courses by FETAC.

On September 13 – a full six months after the company had been found to be issuing false certificates – FETAC suspended the company from its list of authorised trainers pending a full investigation.

However, Empower continued to enrol students in FETAC-approved courses and others certificated by British universities.

A former Empower tutor said the firm intensified its drive to sign up students during this period, offering FETAC courses that were shorter in length than other trainers. Customer receipts from July 22 to September, show the firm collected €244,000.

Following the September Irish Examiner article revealing the issues surrounding Empower’s operation, Mr Doran issued a statement to learners and tutors.

In it he said: “Empower refutes all allegations made recently in the media. Empower has put thousands of learners successfully through the FETAC accreditation system over the last number of years, all of which were externally verified in line with FETAC quality assurance procedures. We have not been contacted by the gardaí or Skillnets and are perplexed with these reports in the newspaper.”

In recent days, neither Mr Doran nor Ms Hinton could be contacted for comment.