Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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158. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason the process adopted that resulted in Early Childhood Ireland and Border Counties Childcare Network being awarded €900,000 to train 630 people working in the child care sector; if the process adopted an open tendering process and, if not, the reason for same; if the payment structure was agreed-outcome based, and, if not, the payment structure agreed and the timeframe for payment; the way the figure of €900,000 was arrived at; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53173/13]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As part of my Pre-School Quality Agenda, I will be introducing new qualification requirements for child-care workers. All staff caring for children in a pre-school service will be subject to a minimum qualification requirement of FETAC Level 5, while pre-school leaders delivering the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme will require a Level 6 qualification. These requirements will come into effect from September 2014 for new services, and from September 2015 for existing services.

In light of these timeframes, my Department has sought to work with the child-care sector to accelerate the process for training and upskilling its staff and improving the quality of care delivered to children. It is considered that, to achieve the required qualifications in the limited timescale available, staff in the child-care sector, who are on modest pay, should not have to pay the full cost of undergoing accredited training from their own resources.

For 2014 a learner fund totalling €1.5 million will be made available through the CCCs so that existing staff can choose a suitable training provider to upskill to Level 5 or 6 as applicable.

Early Childhood Ireland (ECI), which is the largest of the voluntary child-care organisations funded by my Department, and the Border Counties Childcare Network (BCCN), which provides quality supports including training in the Border counties area, have been asked as part of their 2013 work plan to offer additional training to the existing child-care workforce in relevant training modules at FETAC Levels 5 and 6. Additional grant funding will be made available to ECI and the BCCN in 2013 to provide for this.

Both ECI and BCCN submitted proposals to my Department outlining their plans to provide the increased level of training support to the child-care sector in line with their roles as voluntary child-care organisations.

242 child-care workers are currently participating in two FETAC Level 5 and ten FETAC Level 6 training modules provided by ECI. A further 278 child-care workers will commence training across fifteen courses (four Level 5 and eleven Level 6), in January 2014, with another 94 commencing training across five courses (one level 5 and four level 6) in February 2014. Some of the training courses are being delivered online, with the remainder being delivered face-to-face.

BCCN has identified approximately 60 child-care practitioners who will avail of their training programme with some of these commencing training as early as next week. The training modules for remaining participants will commence in January 2014.