Mr. William Beausang:

SOLAS is strongly committed to supporting community education. The development of the next further education and training strategy will provide an opportunity for further engagement, which I am sure has been ongoing on SOLAS's part in examining this important aspect of the further education and training sector. There is no obligation on providers to engage with QQI and it is only when they want to have their programme validated that they must contribute to the learner protection fund. The community and voluntary sector, as the committee will know, is homogeneous. Approximately 130 providers are self-declared as community and voluntary, and there is a diverse cohort of learners. QQI has advised us that some self-declared community and voluntary providers operate on a for-profit commercial basis and charge fees to students for programmes. Protection for enrolled learners is necessary to ensure that payments made by students are safeguarded.

Some community and voluntary providers will be exempt from the fund. QQI estimates that 25% of providers in the category deliver programmes up to level 3 on the national framework of qualifications, which are largely in community education. They are programmes of less than three months' duration. Similarly, any programmes where moneys are not paid by learners will be exempt from the fund. That includes programmes funded by the Exchequer, back-to-work schemes and upskilling programmes offered by ETBs. The learner protection charge will only apply when a provider accepts moneys from or on behalf of a learner in respect of a programme with a minimum duration of three months. There will be further engagement by QQI with stakeholders on the development of criteria for the learner protection fund and QQI will be required to undertake periodic reviews of it. I hope that information is of benefit to the committee.