1,200 college places for jobless unfilled
The Springboard scheme was designed to re-skill people who have worked in construction, manufacturing and other areas worst affected by the downturn. The €22.8 million fund — initially announced a year ago and finalised as part of the Government’s jobs initiative in May — was designed to provide 5,900 higher education places up to masters degree level.
But the Irish Examiner revealed in early September that only 5,500 people had applied and just 2,700 places were filled just weeks before most courses were due to begin. Education Minister Ruairi Quinn then announced changes to the criteria, as it appeared that people who were otherwise suitable for the courses were not applying because they were not out of work for the necessary six months.
But while around 4,000 places went on to be filled by late September, the number now enrolled is still just over 4,600 out of around 7,500 people who applied.
The Higher Education Authority believes the number of enrolments will be closer to 5,000 after some high-demand courses begin a second run of classes for students before Christmas.
“We had over 5,800 places and we will have filled less than that. But we’re happy overall, it was all very new this year, there was a big exercise in getting awareness out there,” said Mary Liz Trant, head of authority’s national access office.
Ms Trant said there was strong uptake in courses related to IC, medical devices and the green economy.
The figures are a further setback to Government plans to retrain people worst affected by the downturn.
It was revealed last week that poor uptake of courses and difficulties around the application process mean the Department of Education will return almost half the €38m received from the EU to retrain former workers at Dell in Limerick, Waterford Crystal and SR Technics.
