Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 104: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department will carry out an assessment of the relevance of training courses provided by FÁS in meeting the needs of business and those seeking employment. [18090/05]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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FÁS, in conjunction with the social partners, continues to maintain and develop procedures and mechanisms which are designed to keep under ongoing review the relevance of its training courses to the needs of business and those seeking employment. There are several ways in which FÁS maintains contact with and is responsive to the training requirements of business, job-seekers and the wider economy.

FÁS, through its network of 70 offices and training centres in eight regions throughout Ireland, is in continual contact with local Irish business. In each region there is a dedicated services to business function with a manager and a team of experienced industry-training advisers, specifically employed to capture and respond to businesses' training needs at a local level. In addition, FÁS has established a central head office unit which works closely with industry at sectoral level and regularly facilitates studies to ascertain current and future training needs and trends.

FÁS also reviews, on a regular basis, the relevance of its training programmes in meeting the needs of those seeking employment. These needs are identified primarily through the regular contact between FÁS employment services and the unemployed and other jobseekers. A particular emphasis is placed on tailoring programmes to meet the needs of those who are long-term unemployed and those who are at risk of drifting into long-term unemployment. Apart from identifying demand for existing FÁS provision, FÁS has recently introduced a facility for recording training needs requested or identified by clients and which are not currently provided by FÁS, with a view to better informing its mix of programmes. On a higher level, the board of FÁS comprises of senior representatives of employer organisations, trade unions and others.