Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources - Pat. Rabbitte T.D, today announced offers of training grants amounting to €1.88m for 20 training projects run by community and voluntary groups and not for profit organisations under the BenefIT 3 scheme.
Minister Rabbitte said “This important scheme means that 40,000 people will gain from IT training between now and June 2012. The programme is to support those who have not yet gone on-line. In particular older people will benefit – as will an estimated 17,000 unemployed people as well as other disadvantaged groups. By supporting community and voluntary organisations to deliver this training we can ensure excellent value for money.”
The Minister made the announcement at the presentation of the Silver Surfer Awards which are sponsored by Google in partnership with Age Action Ireland.
Commenting on the announcement Minister Rabbitte said:-
There are thousands of people living in Ireland today who have been left behind when it comes to the internet. These people miss out on opportunities most people now take for granted. For example, those not yet engaged cannot:-
· send and receive emails,
· do a quick internet search to find the information or the products they need on-line
· play back the TV or radio programme they missed yesterday on-line when it suits them
· conduct their transactions with Government on-line saving themselves time, effort and often money
They don’t have the opportunity to:-
· save money by accessing a wider marketplace and often find better deals on-line
· apply for jobs on-line – where many/most jobs are now advertised and applied for
Summing up, the Minister said “Firstly and most importantly this initiative is about people – not leaving them behind – giving them the opportunity to engage in the way the exemplary silver surfers here today do – and we can all see why that makes sense.
The grants are based on the evaluation scores earned by the best grant applications using criteria including value for money, geographical accessibility and quality of proposal. A list of the organisations to whom the grants are now being offered for delivery of the training is appended below. Further information is also available at
www.eInclusion.ieFor further information: Press office DCENR 01 6782441
Note for Information
· The list of approved grants is appended below.
· This scheme builds on the previous two BenefIT schemes.
· Under the BenefIT 3 scheme Training will be provided to about 40,000 people between now and end June next. In particular older people will benefit – as will an estimated 17,000 unemployed people as well as other disadvantaged groups.
· The training focuses on the basic skills people need - like how to use eMail, how to do an internet search, how to use services like skype, conduct simple on-line transactions like book a ticket, pay a bill, reserve a book, as well as optional training relating to digital photographs, banking on-line, or using the internet to assist with your own areas of interest.
· The training will be available at several locations in every county (in the republic). It is being provided through 20 projects involving over 200 organisations in a wide variety of venues spanning approximately 700 locations. It involves local authorities, national representative organisations, universities, VECs, trades unions, enterprise & development groups, disability representative groups, job and resource centres as well as a wide range of local groups. It will involve professional and volunteer trainers – all focusing on the goal of helping people acquire the basic internet skills to do all sorts of things.
· This scheme will train as many people as were trained under the two previous schemes combined – and for less money
· The Benefit 1 scheme trained approx 32,000 people at a cost of €2.23m, with approximately 7,400 more trained under the BenefIT 2 scheme at a cost of €351K = total cost 2.58m to train almost 40,000 people. Under the BenefIT 3 scheme 40,000 people will be trained at a cost of €1.88m = 700K less to train a similar number.
Grants offered under BenefIT 3Grantee Number of Locations € Grant offered Projected(Organisation) number of trainees
Active Retirement Ireland 8 44,759 1,130
Age Action Ireland Ltd 135 230,000 4,600
Ballyfermot IT Centre
Social Economy 29 277,300 5,960
Caring for Carers Ireland Ltd 86 56,430 990
Carlow Community
Enterprise Centre Ltd 8 33,300 900
Co Cork VEC 38 48,557 1,080
Co Meath VEC 47 44,550 990
Co Waterford VEC 34 38,190 670
Craol Community
Radio Forum Of Ireland 19 44,100 900
Dublin Employment Pact 121 500,000 10,000
ICS Skills 38 177,525 4,500
Ideas Institute (SIPTU) 12 32,328 670
Irish Congress of Trade Unions 28 52,903 1,008
Irish Internet Association (IIA) 24 40,200 670
Irish Rural Link 94 54,000 1,080
Meath Partnership 5 37,128 670
Michael O'Mara Centre 2 25,078 670
National Learning Centre 42 42,900 1,100
NCBI working for people
with sight loss 16 40,200 670
St Canice's Community
Action Ltd 13 64,800 1,440
TOTAL 1,884,248 39,698