Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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823. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason that Solas is sponsoring an RTÉ radio show for apprenticeships when the purpose of Solas funding is for education; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55066/22]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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SOLAS is the Further Education and Training Authority responsible for planning, funding and co-ordinating Further Education and Training (FET) in Ireland. Its core functions are to research, plan, fund and co-ordinate the delivery of over 280,000 FET places across a range of programmes annually.

FET offers a wide variety of life-long education options, including Post-Leaving Certificate courses, apprenticeships, traineeships, skills training, community and adult learning options, online learning through eCollege as well as core literacy and numeracy support services. Programmes are delivered in FET colleges and centres across the 16 Education and Training Boards. 

Under Section 7(1)(b) of the Further Education and Training Act, 2013, SOLAS has a statutory mandate to promote an appreciation of the value of FET in Ireland. To do this, SOLAS runs a promotional campaign under the banner ‘This is FET’to increase awareness and highlight the education and training programmes that are available to citizens across Ireland. 

As part of this campaign and in order to reach a large national audience SOLAS sought quotes from a variety of programmes on national radio stations for sponsorship options through its media agency. The Today with Claire Byrne show on RTE Radio 1 offered SOLAS the opportunity to promote FET opportunities to 350,000 listeners daily over a four-month period from September to December 2022.Throughout this time period, FET opportunities in general will be promoted as well as specific areas such as FET for school leavers and green skills training.