Vol. 502 No. 3
100 Mr. Gormley asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if staff members of her Department have received funding to attend courses; if so, the number of courses attended; the names of the courses; and the amount paid since June 1997. [7580/99]
My Department is committed to developing all staff members through various avenues and wherever possible such courses are funded. As a result an increasing proportion of payroll is spent on staff development and training. A large proportion of the training budget is spent on refund of fees to staff attending third level courses in recognised and approved colleges. The Department also provides funding for in-house courses which cater for the training needs of all staff. The courses provided by the Department include front-line skills, personnel development, staff development, management development as well as customer service, induction courses and effective writing. Funding is also provided for training in specialised areas of interest to particular divisions of the Department.
Given the number and diversity of courses attended by staff of my Department, it would be very difficult to provide information in the detail sought. However, the following table includes the breakdown of the cost of funding the various different types of training and development courses:
|
June 1997 to endDecember 1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
|
|
£ |
£ |
£ |
|
|
Training courses |
38,940 |
54,047 |
50,238 |
|
IT training |
22,039 |
65,608 |
11,019 |
|
Refund of fees |
44,782 |
73,089 |
2,535 |
|
Seminars |
5,269 |
8,093 |
1,299 |
|
Conferences |
5,183 |
18,393 |
16,899 |
|
Total Cost |
116,213 |
219,230 |
81,990 |
