Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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187. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a QQI fee waiver for not-for-profit community and voluntary sector education groups that are currently expected to pay the same fees as for-profit education businesses will be considered (details supplied). [37250/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012 requires that quality assurance underpins the relationship between QQI and the providers with which it engages. This applies to providers operating in the areas of further or higher education and training. QQI is undertaking a re-engagement process with its legacy providers, the purpose of which is to renew this relationship and to ensure that providers have in place fit for purpose quality assurance arrangements that serve the needs of learners. This is essential in order to ensure that all education and training activities meet appropriate quality standards and meet the learning objectives of participants.

QQI, unlike other awarding bodies, does not provide programmes and related assessment methodologies to providers. Instead, providers who engage with QQI must have their own capacity to design programmes and assessment methodologies based on awards standards set down by QQI and linked to the National Framework of Qualifications. Through the process of re-engagement, legacy providers will have the opportunity to demonstrate that they have this capacity and equally importantly, that it is sustainable in the long-term. This will help underpin the credibility and reputation of the education and training opportunities across the broader spectrum of the further education and training sector and contribute to the further development of the appropriate pathways through that system. Important considerations that arise in that regard relate, for example, to the capacity that providers will be required to put in place to ensure that the infrastructure required to develop and deliver programmes are consistent with national standards and facilitate the assessment of the achievement of stated learning objectives by learners.

QQI has worked closely with stakeholders from the Community and Voluntary Sector to identify appropriate solutions that balance the need to continue to facilitate this sector’s education providers to support hard-to-reach learners, with the responsibility to ensure that all providers that engage with QQI are equipped to meet the same robust quality assurance standards.

The policy informing QQI's fee structure has been subject to extensive consultation and provides that the application of fees will be consistent, transparent and equitable. It is also important that it reflects the amount and complexity of the work undertaken by QQI. The level of fees to be applied for the purposes of re-engagement has been subject to extensive deliberation to ensure that they are consistent with this policy and are applied equitably. It was determined during this process that it would not be possible to develop a fee waiver scheme which would be fair, equitable, objective and justifiable given the diversity of providers in this sector. On that basis, a range of fees have been formally approved for this purpose and were published by QQI in July of this year.