Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 65: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if FÁS has carried out a review of all education and training courses on offer or if the review will take place after SOLAS has been formally established; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20658/12]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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At present further education is delivered by the Vocational Education Committees while general training is delivered by FÁS Training Services. As part of its annual planning exercise to ensure that its courses, and the courses it procures, remain relevant to the needs of an evolving labour market and to the needs of its clients, FÁS reviews the training provision for which it has a mandate. This review is facilitated by its own National Skills Database, the work of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, and regular contact with the Department of Social Protection, together with information from a range of sources, including direct contact with employers, independent surveys on course outcomes, and national and international research on skills needs. Both in its training plan for 2011 and again this year (2012) FÁS have introduced significant numbers of new courses to address current and predicted future needs. Once SOLAS is established it will have strategic responsibility for the training currently delivered by FÁS and the further education currently delivered by VECs. The programmes will be integrated, flexible, value-for-money and responsive to the needs of learners and the requirements of a changed and changing economy. SOLAS will also ensure that further education and training programmes are more flexible and responsive to meet the particular needs of jobseekers and enterprise. As part of this process, courses and their curricula will be constantly reviewed to ensure that they are fully aligned to the skills needs identified by the EGFSN.