Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 50: To ask the Minister for Social Protection when she will deliver on the programme for Government promise to extend eligibility for the back to education allowance and if the changes will be made in advance of the intake of next September. [15337/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The back to education allowance (BTEA) is one of a range of activation supports and policies with the objective of assisting social welfare recipients to improve their life chances by facilitating access to employment, work experience, education and training. The focus of BTEA is to assist those who are most marginalised and distant from the labour market to acquire the necessary education to improve their chances of becoming independent of the social welfare system.

The BTEA scheme can offer participation in second and third level education by enabling eligible people on social welfare to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that leads to a higher qualification than that already held. On May 10th, as part of the Government's Jobs Initiative, 20,900 new and additional places were announced in training, education and work experience programmes.

As part of this Initiative a new fund, entitled Springboard, which is being managed by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills, will provide education and training opportunities to support unemployed people. The primary objective of Springboard is to help unemployed people to remain as close as possible to the labour market by accessing part-time flexible higher education and training opportunities to upskill or reskill in areas where sustainable employment opportunities may arise as the economy recovers. The target group for this programme includes unemployed people with a previous history of employment who already hold a higher level qualification at NFQ Levels 6 to 9, who may also require additional upskilling or reskilling in order to re-enter employment. Included in this initiative will be part-time Masters courses and, via the part-time education option, unemployed people on jobseekers' payments will be facilitated in retaining these, subject to continuing entitlement, within the broader back-to-education framework. The BTEA, in conjunction with other employment support schemes, will be monitored on an ongoing basis.