Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 January 2014
76. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the budget allocated to Quality and Qualifications Ireland for 2012, 2013 and 2014; the number of staff employed; the staff costs broken down between the numbers earning below and above €80,000 per annum; if he will outline this body's work; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3276/14]
View answerQuality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) has been allocated €7.225m in 2014 to support the performance of its functions. It was allocated €7.416m in 2013, although its outturn for that year was €6.416m. Due to the timeframe involved in the development of QQI's new policies and processes, QQI's level of activity was less than anticipated in 2013, giving rise to the saving of €1 million in that year. However, activity began to increase during the final quarter of 2013, as QQI began to accept new applications from providers, so expenditure from the end of 2013 onwards will revert back to "normal" levels.
Its predecessor bodies, the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland (NQAI), the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC) and the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC), were allocated a total of €7.714m in 2012.
At the end of 2013 QQI employed a total of 84 staff (78.7 on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis) of whom 19 (18.7 FTE) earned above €80,000 per annum.
The main statutory functions of QQI, assigned to QQI by the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act, 2012, can be summarised as follows: to maintain the National Framework of Qualifications; to agree, and review the effectiveness of, the procedures for quality assurance of education and training established by providers; to validate programmes of education and training; to establish and review the standards of knowledge, skill or competence associated with its awards; to make awards and, where appropriate, delegate authority to make awards to providers; to determine and monitor policies and criteria for access, transfer and progression; to establish a Code of Practice for the provision of education to international learners and the related International Education Mark and to authorise use of the Mark.
In addition, QQI has assumed responsibility for a number of other functions undertaken by its predecessor bodies, and therefore serves as the national co-ordinating authority for Europass, ENIC (European Network of Information Centres) and NARIC (National Academic Recognition Information Centre) and as the National Reference Point for vocational education and training; operates Qualifications Recognition Ireland as a single point of contact for all queries concerning the recognition of international awards; maintains Qualifax (www.qualifax.ie), the National Learners Database containing information on approximately 18,000 programmes of education and training; and maintains, on behalf of the Departments of Education and Skills and Justice and Equality, the Internationalisation Register (www.intregister.ie); provides the secretariat for EQAVET (European quality assurance in vocational education and training).
QQI currently provides its services to over 1,000 providers of programmes of education and training which lead to awards at every level of the National Framework of Qualifications. In 2012 approximately 170,000 learners in the further education and training sector received QQI/FETAC awards, while approximately 26,000 QQI/HETAC awards were made, either directly by QQI/HETAC or by the Institutes of Technology.
