Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senator for raising this issue. At the outset, I want to clarify for the House that Dunboyne College of Further Education is an approved provider of post leaving certificate, PLC, courses and is operated by County Meath Vocational Education Committee.

The PLC programme is a self-contained whole-time learning experience designed to provide successful participants with specific vocational skills to enhance their prospects of securing lasting, full-time employment or to progress to other studies. It caters for those who have completed senior cycle education and require further vocational education and training as well as adults who may not have completed the senior cycle but who are returning to education and who have skills and competencies which enable them to undertake the courses. PLC courses are generally of one or two years' duration and are at levels 5 and 6 on the national framework of qualifications. There are 2,000 different courses available in more than 1,000 disciplines, from business and secretarial skills to art, crafts and design, from child care and community care to equestrian studies and a range of other disciplines in between. As well as this, through the higher education links scheme, PLC courses also provide an alternative route to higher education in the institutes of technology and, in 2005, some institutes and other higher education institutions introduced a pilot admissions criteria and scoring system for FETAC level 5 certificate and level 6 advanced certificate applicants.

There are 31,688 PLC places available nationwide, including an additional 1,500 places allocated following the April 2009 budget. This provision is being maintained for 2010-11. PLC courses are delivered by a nationwide network of almost 200 schools and colleges in the vocational, secondary, community and comprehensive school sector. The bulk of provision is in vocational colleges operated by the VECs. My Department allocates PLC places to VECs and other providers every year following an application process. For VECs, the further distribution of places to individual colleges is a matter for each VEC.

In County Meath VEC, there are three approved PLC providers: the College of Further Education, Dunboyne, St. Oliver's post-primary school, Oldcastle, and Beaufort College, Navan. The number of PLC places allocated to County Meath VEC has more than doubled in the past five years, from 136 in 2004-05 to 290 for the current 2009-10 academic year, including an additional 20 places allocated in this academic year. There are also two approved PLC providers in County Meath outside the VEC sector, namely, Boyne community school, Trim, which has an allocation of 22 places and Athboy community school which has an allocation of 16 PLC places. This means there are almost 330 PLC places in County Meath.

The overall number of approved PLC places is set at its current level of 31,688 because there is a continuing requirement to plan and control numbers and to manage expenditure within the context of overall educational policy and provision. Any future increases would have to take account of the present and prospective economic and budgetary context and related financial constraints. I thank the Senator for raising this issue and providing me with an opportunity to outline this Government's commitment to the post leaving certificate programme.