Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 8: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the progress being made with the approved funding of €10 million by the FÁS board to provide training for small and medium enterprise managers or supervisors under the strategic alliance programme, agreed in the Social Partnership Programme Towards 2016, which was to be rolled out more than two years ago; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40764/09]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The importance of upskilling the Irish workforce to meet present and future economic and social goals is well established. Upskilling improves competitiveness and hence business success and economic growth. It also significantly contributes to ensuring the future employability of the workforce. The remit of FÁS in this respect is to contribute to such upskilling through encouraging and supporting the training, re-training and upskilling of the workforce.

Management training and development has been identified as a key national priority for maintaining and increasing the competitiveness of Irish businesses in a series of relevant reports including the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs report SME Management Competence in Ireland (2006), the Small Business Forum report Small Business is Big Business (2006) and the Enterprise Strategy Group report Ahead of the Curve (2004).

In order to address this priority, training programmes were provided under the FÁS SME Management Development Initiative as part of its Strategic Alliance Programme. Training began in September 2007 and will conclude on 31st March 2010. An evaluation of the initiative will take place after that.

Under the Initiative training courses are being delivered in key areas such as: -

Business Performance and Capacity-building,

Sales & Marketing,

Finance,

Personal Professional Development,

Employment Law, and

Human Resources.

Initially some €10 million was budgeted for the Initiative to train some 8,000 participants. It is currently estimated that approximately €5 million will have been expended on the initiative upon completion, providing training to some 5,000 participants at a cost to the state of c. €1,000 per participant. Over €4 million has been spent to date on this initiative to the benefit of almost 3,800 participants.

This projected underspend is due to a variety of factors including the need to design and deliver new training programmes adapted to meet the new business realities.