Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Further Education and Training Bill 2013 provides for the establishment of an education and training authority, known as SOLAS, which will co-ordinate and fund further education and training provision in Ireland. The Bill also provides for the dissolution of FÁS and the transfer of its staff and property to SOLAS. The Bill is part of a wider process of institutional reform of the further education and training sector in Ireland.

SOLAS will be responsible for co-ordinating and funding the further education and training sector. The Bill assigns a broad range of functions to SOLAS, including strategic policy direction, programme development, funding, oversight and co-ordination of the sector. Some key functions of SOLAS are to advance funding to providers of further education and training; to determine, following consultation, what types of education and training programme should be funded and delivered; to establish systems to monitor the quality of further education and training programmes; to prepare and submit a five-year national strategy for the provision of further education and training; and to conduct research on matters relating to these functions. Unlike FÁS, SOLAS will not deliver programmes itself.

It is expected that, following the establishment of SOLAS and the enactment of the Education and Training Boards Bill 2012, existing FÁS training centres under the remit of the 16 ETBs, which will replace the current VECs and manage the delivery of publicly funded further education and training. The Bill is one part of a wider process of institutional restructuring of the Irish further education and training sector which aims to radically reform the system so that it can enjoy restored public confidence and provide courses that are relevant to learners.

A number of steps towards major structural reform of the further education and training sector have already been taken. In July 2011, the Government decided to integrate the delivery of further education and training under 16 ETBs, a process that involved amalgamating and rationalising 33 VECs. This is provided for in the Education and Training Boards Bill 2012.

Currently there is an annual investment of some €900 million in further education and training. This provides for around 270,000 places in part-time or full-time further education and training courses, provided in a large variety of centres. Currently there are some 450 centres delivering formal further education and training, including FÁS training centres, VECs and Youthreach centres. Hundreds of large and small centres are delivering formal and informal courses in atypical modes to different cohorts of learners. There are some 9,000 staff employed in the sector delivering thousands of courses. These courses include technical and vocational training leading to a specific career, apprenticeships and post-leaving-certificate courses, as well as basic literacy, numeracy and adult education.

SOLAS will consult with the Department of Social Protection and employers to determine what types of courses and training programmes it should fund, with such courses and programmes to be delivered by public and other bodies. It will also promote, encourage and facilitate the placement of persons who are in receipt of jobseeker's allowance or benefit in further education and training programmes that are funded in whole or in part out of public money, in consultation with the Minister for Social Protection.

The board of SOLAS will comprise ten ordinary members, including the CEO, who is an ex-officio member, and one chairperson. The Minister will appoint a chairperson and nine ordinary members who, in the opinion of the Minister, have expertise and experience in matters connected with the SOLAS functions and matters connected with finance, trade, commerce, corporate governance or public administration.

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