Damien English
Question:54 Mr. English asked the Minister for Education and Science the enrolment capacity for colleges of further education and PLC courses for 2005; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30465/04]
View answerThursday, 25 November 2004
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Written answers
The PLC programme is a labour market programme, aimed at providing vocational education and training for school leavers and re-entrants to the labour market. The programme also offers alternative pathways to higher education in institutes of technology.
PLC courses are delivered primarily in the VEC sector. Courses are also offered in some secondary, community and comprehensive schools. Course places are allocated to VECs and schools under an annual application and approval process.
Each VEC has discretion to determine the distribution of the approved places between individual schools and colleges under its remit, within the constraint of the overall number of places allocated at VEC level. In 2003-04, over 1,000 courses in over 60 designations were offered to students in 210 centres throughout the country.
Nationally, a total of 28,588 places have been approved for post-leaving certificate courses for 2004-05. My Department will invite applications for PLC courses for 2005-06 in the near future.