Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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515. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the breakdown of spending under the heading employee development provision including the workplace basic education fund, WBEF, of the national training fund expenditure, particularly the amount allocated for WBEF in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43441/21]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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The Employee and Continuing Professional Development programme provision from the National Training Fund is aligned with Government policy to support workforce upskilling and commitment to roll out the ETB led Skills to Advance programme which is designed to target existing employees with limited formal qualifications. The programme is aimed at developing the skills of people in employment through focused initiatives targeting employers, individual employees and sectoral and regional responses via a competitive call.

This programme supports the policy framework for employee development, 'Supporting Working Lives and Enterprise Growth in Ireland', which was developed by SOLAS in consultation with key partners. This approach enables targeted support for vulnerable groups in the Irish workforce as it has a particular focus on employees who have lower skills levels and who need more opportunities to advance in their working lives and careers, to sustain their employment and to avoid displacement or to avail of emerging job opportunities. The Skills to Work (WBEF) element of the Employee Professional Development sub-head is €3.5 million. The remainder of the SOLAS provision is to be expended on the Skills to Advance Initiative.

Engineers Ireland Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Accredited Employer scheme allows Ireland’s engineering-led organisations to strategically deploy their learning & development systems and processes to bring about a competitive advantage.