My Department has a number of measures in place to address the skills needs of the economy.
FÁS delivers an extensive range of training courses to unemployed people to provide them with the skills they require to take up employment. Training courses for unemployed people are developed by FÁS in consultation with local employers and are regularly reviewed to ensure that the courses are relevant to the needs of the labour market. Over 14,500 people have commenced FÁS industry training courses for the unemployed since the beginning of the year. Placement rates to employment from industry training courses for the unemployed are in excess of 70 per cent.
FÁS also provides training and funding for the apprenticeship system, which meets the economy's requirements for skilled craftspeople. There are some 19,000 apprentices registered with FÁS at present, compared to just under 14,000 at the end of 1997.
The upgrading of the skills of those who are already in employment is addressed through the training support scheme, which is operated by FÁS and Enterprise Ireland for their respective client companies. The training support scheme provides financial support to firms which wish to update the skills of their workforce through training or retraining. In 1998, the training support scheme assisted over 3,000 firms to train 27,546 people. A sum of £8.8 million is available to FÁS and Enterprise Ireland in 1999 for the training support scheme.
My Department is providing an additional £9 million in Exchequer funding to industry over the next three years for a pilot enterprise led training networks programme. This initiative will facilitate companies in identifying and addressing their training and human resources development needs on a networked basis.
Conscious of the importance of meeting the skill needs of the economy, the Government, at the end of 1997, established an expert group on future skills needs to identify in a systematic way the skills requirements of different sectors of the economy and to advise on the actions necessary to meet those needs. The expert group's first report was completed in June 1998 and dealt with the software and electronics sectors.