Union doubts benefits of teacher work placement scheme

AN unpaid work placement scheme to help unemployed teachers get classroom experience may not be as beneficial as promised, a union claims.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) earlier this year called for assistance in getting recent graduates the classroom experience needed to undergo the probation by department inspectors which they must complete before being eligible for full-time jobs.

But the union said an initiative unveiled by Education Minister Mary Coughlan would pose problems for many schools with no extra space to accommodate classes for a new teacher at short notice and difficulties would arise if work placement teachers left during the school year.

The scheme operated through Fás involves placements of between two and nine months but it cannot be used to displace an existing staff member or fill a vacant post.

Ms Coughlan announced this week that the free work placement programme is being expanded to create an extra 5,000 places across the wider public service and 500 more graduate placements in the private sector, all above an existing 2,000 places.

But an INTO spokesperson said the scheme offers no prospects to teachers without work, other than being allowed to apply to schools to work for nothing. He said suggestions that the scheme might allow unemployed teachers to undertake their probation are exaggerated.

“In general, to complete probation, teachers must be appointed to teach a class in a primary school for a full school year and have their competence evaluated by inspectors. To facilitate a work placement and allow a teacher complete probation, a school would need to have additional or spare classroom accommodation but most schools don’t have this.

“Even if a school did have extra classrooms, the scheme allows for a work placement teacher to leave with just a week’s notice and schools cannot plan on this basis. If this happened, huge reorganisation would be required in the school at short notice and it would be very disruptive for pupils,” he said.

The work placement programme is one of a number of initiatives that are expected to provide additional training for at least 12,000 people next year. A €20 million fund will create spaces for unemployed people in higher education courses up to masters degree level, and on-the-job training will be given to up to 1,000 apprentices whose training was disrupted by their previous employers going out of business or being unable to pay for them.

A further 700 places for redundant apprentices will be made available in institutes of technology early next year. Up to 5,000 places will be supported under an internship programme in the private, community or voluntary sectors, offering a one-year placement and training to people who have been unemployed for at least three months.