Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 December 2019
388. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons that received a training support grant in each of the years 2017, 2018 and to date in 2019; the expenditure on the scheme in 2017, 2018 and to date in 2019; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50739/19]
View answerThe purpose of the training support grant is to fund quick access to short term training for individual jobseekers looking to exit the live register. The grant is provided where case officers have identified an immediate skills gap that represents an obstacle to taking up a job offer or accessing other activation measures. This grant provides case officers with financial resources to respond to the identified training needs of the jobseeker, focused on obtaining work in line with their agreed personal progression plan.
A grant of up to €500 is available to a jobseeker and it is paid directly to the training provider. The funding typically helps participants pursue training such as health & safety training, forklift licence, childcare training, beauty therapy training, etc.
The training support grant scheme is not designed to substitute training and activation measures that are provided under other programmes or by other agencies.
The numbers availing of this grant are represented in the following table. The reduction in those availing of the grant is in line with the overall trend of the improved economy and increased availability of job opportunities. A budget of €2.5m has been allocated to the training support grant in 2019.
|
Year |
No of TSG Interventions |
Expenditure |
|
2017 |
7486 |
€2.6m |
|
2018 |
6425 |
€2.2m |
|
2019 to date |
5629 |
€2m |
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
