Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide a breakdown of the total number of participants who have successfully completed a springboard programme; the success rate of the programme participants in subsequently finding employment and the process in place to track the success of the initiative. [16089/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Springboard, which was first launched in May 2011, strategically targets funding of free part-time higher education courses for unemployed people in areas where there are identified labour market skills shortages or employment opportunities. Springboard 2011 provided part-time higher education places for 4,956 unemployed people on 204 courses at certificate, degree and post graduate level. To date 2,460 participants have graduated from Springboard 2011 courses and 649 are continuing to a further year of study. 5,335 unemployed people have enrolled on 211 different higher education courses under the second phase of Springboard in 2012. Graduation data from Springboard 2012 will be available in the summer.

The evaluation framework for Springboard provides for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of outputs. A first stage evaluation report, which was published by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) in February 2012 and is available at www.hea.ie/en/node/1463, showed that Springboard has been very successful in reaching its target cohorts: 77% of participants were aged between 25 and 49, 60% had been out of work for more than 1 year and 20% had previously been employed in construction.

A second stage evaluation report was published in February 2013 and is available at www.hea.ie/en/node/1514. It shows that 30% of Springboard participants were back in work within 6 weeks of completing a Springboard course and that 40% were back in work within 6 months of completion. Outcomes varied across programme areas and levels and by age and duration unemployed.