Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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64. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if control procedures are in place to monitor and measure the quality and effectiveness of courses being provided by private educational organisations which were once provided in-house by FÁS; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42176/13]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Contract training has been an integral part of FÁS's service provision to clients for many years. The processes for managing and monitoring contracts are comprehensive and were substantially improved in a review of contracted training in 2010. FETAC, now Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, prepared a comprehensive monitoring report of FÁS during 2011 and 2012. This report set out a number of recommendations to further develop and improve the arrangements for quality assurance and enhancement put in place by FÁS.

In August, FÁS provided QQI with an update on the action plan which set out how FÁS had addressed the recommendations contained in the report, and this will inform its ongoing discussions with QQI on quality assurance. QQI is now responsible for reviewing the overall effectiveness of the quality assurance arrangements established by FÁS. Before the establishment of QQI, this function was performed by FETAC.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I raised this question following anecdotal evidence from some constituents regarding certain courses they are attending which they believe are not properly organised. They do not feel they are getting proper value for the time they are putting in. As we are moving to having FÁS courses contracted out, we need to ensure quality is maintained. While I appreciate the reply the Minister of State has given, I am hearing this evidence. In some cases students, having been on a course for three ,weeks are given the criteria to be used in an assessment which has been scheduled for just three days later. Is such information about courses being relayed back to the Minister of State or to those monitoring the courses to ensure ongoing and continued improvements?

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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The director general and current board of FÁS have done extraordinary work in the past two to three years in greatly enhancing the quality assurance process for course provision within the courses provided by FÁS and those contracted out to the private sector. I can be reasonably assured that that process is working because I had a meeting about this time last year with some representatives of the private training sector arguing that the pendulum had swung too far in the opposite direction and that the quality assurance requirements set out by FÁS were too stringent and very difficult to meet. I made the point that if they wanted to be involved in training in this sector, work under the aegis of FÁS and receive public moneys to carry out such training, they needed to adhere to such stringent quality assurance.

SOLAS, the new national further education and training authority, will have a role in ensuring this comprehensive monitoring of quality assurance continues. I will seek to establish a very comprehensive and easily accessed communication process between learners and SOLAS in order that learners can feed back the sort of information the Deputy is hearing in his constituency from participants on some courses. Before that happens, I stress that as far as I am aware, learners on all courses have an opportunity at the end of the course to complete a survey outlining their experiences of the course. Those surveys are used to determine future course quality.

If there are still issues and the Deputy's constituents are still concerned about particular provision, I would be more than happy to take their concerns on board and interact directly with FÁS to resolve problems, if they exist.

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome what the Minister of State said about participant feedback. It is important to have full and open feedback on an ongoing basis. While I know the Minister of State would not receive information on every course, does he or do his officials receive ongoing participant feedback showing whether concerns expressed are being or can be addressed?

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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There is significant and ongoing communication between a section in my Department and senior management in FÁS who meet regularly. In recent years, they have particularly discussed quality assurance issues. Having looked at the structures that exist for reporting back from course participants, I am not so sure it is as robust as it should be. That is one of the improvements that will be put in place under the new national further education and training authority, SOLAS.