SOLAS to replace FÁS as training agency

Firefly said:
Such a waste of money for the taxpayer. So demoralising for those looking for work.
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Very much so, my OH is educated to Masters level, a former company director with 12 years very relevant experience in his chosen area. His FAS 'interview' consisted of a lady suggesting irrelevant courses (some of which didnt start for another 4 months), criticising his very professional CV, and suggesting work placements that were part of the 'slave labour' scheme - WPP1/WPP2.
 
In fairness, a lot of these inadequacies have been acknowledged and are partly the reason for the change in direction.

One of the functions of the new body will be to make training more relevant to the needs of industry and the capabilities of those seeking training. Whether this happens remains to be seen but at least it's a change from the status quo.
 

That’s probably why so many businesses are thriving; the owners are making huge profits and “exploiting” their employees in order to become even fatter fat-cats.
Yes, don’t let reality get in the way of a rant.
How much is an hour of my time or your time worth? Easy, it’s worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it. We may feel that we are superstars and should be paid accordingly but reality may not agree with us.
FAS did some things well and other things very badly.
20 years ago it trained people to do jobs that were needed. Then it became a welfare scheme. That’s when the trouble started.

Personally I’m not a fan of internships or other schemes like that. Somebody with no skills is worth less than nothing to me, I’d rather pay them to go away than have them here for free taking up space and getting in the way. The cost of training someone where I work is well over €10 an hour. Their wage is not the issue. 20 years ago FAS ran really good apprentice training schemes but what they have now is a joke; I wouldn’t dream of sending anyone out to get trained by them.
 
The spokesman on the last word yesterday evening said they would take about 18months to get properly set up and that they would look into all courses offered and their relevance. I think my idea is a lot more straightforward...let the public decide on the courses by getting them to (ultimately) pay for them. To see something like this in action all you have to do is look at how the CAO points for courses fluctuates with the economic state of particular industries. Colleges and universities adapt all the time with new offerings. Currently there is no incentive for the Excel training course provider to offer anything else if FAS are willing to pay for it.
 
It seems to me that unemployed people ar just sent on training courses for the sake of it. Maybe it reduces the number officially 'on the dole'.
There does not seem to be any joined up thinking. I have read that in certain areas (science, engineering) we have a skill shortage. There was a report in the paper last month that there are a couple of thousand job vacancies in american companies. Why can't the government talk to these employers and organise training that is targetted to specific job opportunities?
 
Shawady said:
It seems to me that unemployed people ar just sent on training courses for the sake of it. Maybe it reduces the number officially 'on the dole'.
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Think you're onto something there


I'd wonder about that...I imagine that the skills required for these jobs are pretty specialised and that a lot of experience would also be required, so I'm not sure if they could be met by FAS/SOLAS.
 

At the risk of repeating myself, this seems to be one of the functions of the new organisation.

i've studied thia area a bit in the past. The EU experience has typically been that while employers constantly bleat about the need to involved in designing workforce training, the reality is that they don't match the rhetoric with constructive input. The problem is particularly bad here.

While employers here like to have an available skilled workforce, they don't really see themselves as being part of a process that leads to this (Purple's post refers). In Scandanavia and Germany, training begins as part of the school curriculum. Employers take on trainees/interns as part of what might be regarded as a social contract. The see the long term benefits beyond those that are immediatly realisable to their own bottom line.

But then, they don't have a FAS overseeing the process.
 
We take school kids in on work experience during their 4th year but as some of what we do is potentially dangerous we have to be very careful what we let them do. There is no net gain for us but as much of our workforce is local it does help the local schools place pupils.
The only internship type programme we are involved with is with a big German car manufacturer; we take 2 or 3 of their apprentices for a month each summer.
Very few of the skills we need are taught in schools in Ireland so there’s no benefit to either party to have a more structured approach.

FAS are useless in that regard. They never attempt to link with us. They have never asked us what we need, if what they offer is of any use to us or if there is anything we could do together.
The Institutes of Technology are great in that respect; really proactive and interested in linkages between industry and SME’s.
 
the minister speech on tv stated retraining up to a certain age, then community schemes, what is this certain age
 
johnwilliams said:
the minister speech on tv stated retraining up to a certain age, then community schemes, what is this certain age
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I didn't see the speech, but that sounds unlikely to me. It would probably breach equality legislation to set particular rules based on age, and would go against the fairly well established principal of lifelong learning.
 
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