Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 November 2021
169. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the total funding allocated to the innovation through collaboration fund; the projects funded, partners and funding allocated in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56430/21]
View answerThe first Innovation through Collaboration Call was launched in 2019 as part of the Skills to Advance initiative, which aims to equip employees with the skills to progress in their current job, or to take advantage of new job opportunities. The objective of the Innovation through Collaboration Fund is to provide Education and Training Boards (ETBs) with an opportunity to bid for additional funding to enable a major step-up in innovation in employee development supports and training opportunities for individuals and enterprise.
10 proposals were successful under the 2019 Call and funding of €3,268,406 was awarded as set out in the following table:
|
Lead ETB |
Project Title |
Amount |
|
CMETB |
Upskilling the Food Sector for the future through action learning |
€182,000 |
|
LMETB |
Advanced Manufacturing Skills - Development of Curricula and Flexible Delivery Methods |
€365,000 |
|
GRETB |
AquaFarm: Innovative virtual learning and game based approach to delivering Further Education and Training in Aquaculture |
€314,364 |
|
WWETB |
Step up and Grow Management Development |
€193,000 |
|
MSLETB |
Driving Success with Technology |
€355,000 |
|
MSLETB |
Employer Engagement CRM for the FET Sector |
€263,000 |
|
KWETB |
RPL framework for the Irish Hospitality Sector |
€492,000 |
|
KWETB |
M4-CPD (Manufacturing 4.0 - CPD) |
€340,000 |
|
WWETB |
Development of Innovative Delivery Modes for Existing and Future NZEB Curricula |
€295,000 |
|
DETB |
Validating Competencies of Care Sector Employees via RPL (VCCSE) |
€469,042 |
|
Total |
€3,268,406 |
Details of the proposals and partners have been published by SOLAS and are set out in the attachment.
A second call was opened in July 2021. In this call ETBs were invited to propose new, creative, and previously undeveloped ideas and were encouraged to collaborate outside the FET sector with innovative organisations to develop, test and access creative solutions to the challenges they face in engaging with workforce development. 7 proposals were submitted by the closing date of 7th October and it is expected that the successful proposals will be announced by the end of November 2021 and will commence from January 2022.
