Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I thank Deputy McCarthy for raising this important issue. The back to education allowance, BTEA, scheme is a second chance education opportunity scheme designed to remove the barriers to participation in second and third level education by enabling eligible people on certain social welfare payments to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that leads to a higher education than that already held. The number of participants engaged with the BTEA has grown steadily in recent years. As of 31 December 2011, provisional figures indicate in the region of 25,700 participants are engaged with the scheme in the 2011-12 academic year, which is an increase on the previous year. In the 2010-11 academic year, the scheme attracted 25,032 participants, an increase of 20% on the previous year when there were 20,808 participants. The 2009-10 academic year, which was when the recession began to bite, saw a dramatic increase in participation of 79% on the previous year. Provisional expenditure on the back to education allowance scheme in 2011 was €200 million. An estimate of €183 million has been provided for the scheme in 2012.

A person wishing to pursue the back to education allowance scheme will have to satisfy a number of conditions, such as being of a certain age, receiving a prescribed social welfare payment for a specified period, pursuing a full-time course of study leading to a recognised qualification in a recognised college and progressing in the level of education held by the client with reference to the national framework of qualifications, among other matters. The BTEA scheme covers a large range of full-time courses of education in approved colleges spanning basic foundation courses to third level courses across all disciplines. The back to education allowance is available to eligible persons in pursuit of a professional diploma in education, which was previously known as the graduate diploma in education or higher diploma, in any discipline - level 8 in the national framework of qualifications. Other postgraduate qualifications - levels 9 and 10 - are not included.

BTEA guidelines are in the main in line with the mechanisms in place for student support type schemes administered by the Department of Education and Skills. State support for education purposes is grounded on a student progressing from one qualification level to a higher qualification level. This is necessary to ensure displacement does not occur in that courses could be offered to students who are not progressing at the cost of students progressing from a lower education level. It should be noted that of the 25,032 participants supported through BTEA in the 2010-11 academic year, 43% pursued second level courses. It is sometimes overlooked that many of those returning to education are completing second level.

My officials inform me, following discussion with officials from the Department of Education and Skills, that the Postgraduate Applications Centre Limited was established in 1998 to centrally process and assess applications to postgraduate diploma in education courses. A common points system was devised and it has been used since. Applicants apply to the Postgraduate Applications Centre online and their applications are centrally assessed by a team of assessors.

In 2006, a decision was taken, owing to the large numbers of applicants with business related degrees, to impose a cap on business type degrees. To this end, a 10% allocation was introduced. This decision was taken to ensure an adequate supply of post-primary teachers for all subject areas and avoid an oversupply of teachers of business subjects. Since the demand for places from graduates with business related degrees is high and the number of places available capped, the point scores tend to be higher than for other degrees. I am not in a position to comment on entry requirements or thresholds associated with this specific course or any other course as the matter is not within my remit. The issue of points is one for my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills. I do not know if Deputy McCarthy has been around the Houses with the Minister on this issue.

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