Máirín Quill
Question:214 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Education the changes, if any, that she proposes to make in post-leaving certificate courses. [3751/96]
Written Answers. - PLC Courses.
PLC courses are designed to provide integrated education, vocational training and work experience for students. Their objective is to provide students with the vocational and technological skills necessary for employment and progression to further education and training, and to foster innovation and adaptability in participants.
The White Paper on Education —"Charting Our Education Future"— sets out a comprehensive programme for the consolidation and further development of PLC provision and delivery. The principal policy developments include:
the establishment of a further education authority, with a remit to co-ordinate and regulate PLC provision, at national level
entrusting responsibility to the education boards for regional co-ordination of provision and delivery.
the provision of comprehensive national certification for PLC courses.
The Deputy will be aware that the National Council for Vocational Awards is making significant progress in the provision of certification. I have also established TEASTAS — the Irish National Certification Authority — to provide a comprehensive national qualifications framework for all vocational education and training, including PLC courses.
Criteria have been issued to schools in relation to courses which are properly embraced by the PLC framework and it has been indicated that courses not complying with these criteria, relatively few in number, should be phased out from 1996-97. Also, as part of the overall strategy to ensure that full national certification for all vocational training programmes is achieved by 1999 my Department has indicated to schools that funding will in future be linked to the use of certification by the National Council for Vocational Awards, where such is available.