Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 April 2018
343. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Education and Skills the capacity for a community school in an area of disadvantage to offer PLC courses if it wishes to do so; the steps the community school must undertake to be eligible to provide PLC courses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15206/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra344. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Education and Skills the conditions a community school has to meet to offer PLC courses; the regulations it has to meet in respect of QQI; the cost of meeting these regulations; if funding is provided to community schools in respect of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15207/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra382. Deputy Joan Burton asked the Minister for Education and Skills the conditions a community school has to meet to offer PLC courses; the regulations to be met in respect of QQI; the cost of meeting these regulations; if his Department provides funding to community schools in respect of this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15537/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 343, 344 and 382 together.
The PLC programme has a national CAP of 30,000 approved places annually. Currently all of these places are allocated to the Education & Training Boards (ETBs) and a number of Voluntary Secondary and Community and Comprehensive Schools. SOLAS are responsible for the allocation of PLC places, however all of the approved places have been allocated for 2018/19.
In order to be considered by SOLAS for approval to run PLC courses, the provider must have a Quality Assurance System and have this Quality Assurance System approved and registered with QQI. Also the courses (programmes) that they are seeking to offer must also be validated by QQI. Any costs associated with this approval process are a matter for the provider. Details of this process and associated costs can be found on the QQI website: https://www.qqi.ie.
In January, I published the an ESRI evaluation of the PLC programme along with the SOLAS response, which sets out 45 recommendations to address the findings of the evaluation and improve the quality of the learner experience, learner outcomes and overall programme efficiency.
A SOLAS led PLC Programme Improvement Advisory Committee, comprised of PLC partners, has been established by SOLAS to oversee development and implementation of a three year programme improvement plan, based on the recommendations set out in the SOLAS response. These include a review of the geographic distribution of PLC places in the context of the overall FET provision available to meet the needs of learners and employers in each ETB catchment area, taking into account a number of factors including population and deprivation index.
Specifically in relation to small scale provision (colleges with fewer than 100 students) the recommendation from SOLAS is that further analysis of small scale PLC provision should be carried out in the context of delivering improved resource utilisation, operational efficiencies, student supports and employer engagement.
