The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D. and the Minister for Training and Skills, Ciarán Cannon T.D., are announcing that 6,100 new free higher education places are to be made available to jobseekers through Springboard.
Springboard aims to help jobseekers get the skills that they need in order to get back to work. Courses are one year or less, generally part-time, are free to jobseekers and lead to awards at certificate, degree and post-graduate level.
Springboard specifically targets areas where there are job opportunities and growth. This year 171 different courses in 38 colleges are being offered, including 21 in ICT aimed at giving people who may have trained in a different area the skills to work in the growing ICT sector.
Minister Quinn said, “The biggest challenge facing our country is getting our people back to work and Springboard is aimed at doing exactly that. This year work placements are being offered on almost every Springboard course because such placements are a really important way of improving employment prospects.”
“We are targeting areas like ICT, high end manufacturing and international financial services because job opportunities exist in these areas and there is a huge potential for growth.”
Since 2011, 16,429 jobseekers have participated on Springboard courses with a €54 million investment from the Exchequer. In 2014/15, the Government will spend a further €25 million on Springboard.
Minister Cannon said, “One of the core features of Springboard since the start has been the rigorous evaluation of outcomes – how Springboard participants get on in their course, their experience and most importantly whether they get a job.”
“I’m pleased to see that 94% of participants would recommend the experience to other jobseekers. Of the class of 2013, more than half were in sustainable employment or self-employment within six months of completing their studies, with some courses reporting employment rates of 90%.”
To coincide with the announcement of a further round of Springboard, the Higher Education Authority has also produced a trend analysis (see attached).
This shows that the majority of participants are male, aged 25-39, are more likely to be long-term unemployed and year on year have higher levels of educational qualifications.
More than six out of ten participants complete their Springboard course; of those who withdraw early, almost a third do so because they got a job.
Springboard is part of the Government’s Skills to Work initiative aimed at making it easier for jobseekers and employers to know what Government skills initiatives are available to them www.skillstowork.ie.