Some 14,000 higher-education places without fees or with reduced fees will be made available to help support workers affected by coronavirus restrictions, RTÉ News has reported.
Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris is due to announce €30 million in funding to support part-time or postgraduate college places.
As part of the government’s jobs stimulus package, announced last July, workers hit by restrictions will be helped to upskill. This funding package aims to ease the financial burden of those seeking training or education.
The package will fund the fees for almost 12,000 places on modular courses, as well as 2,500 postgraduate places.
Modular courses are short courses which can be done remotely or part-time, in order to allow people to gain skills without leaving their jobs.
The places will be spread across a range of 200 courses in 23 colleges and higher education institutions, including sciences, engineering, ICT, health and tourism and hospitality.
The funding will be open to those returning to the workforce, already in employment or recent graduates. Recipients of social-welfare payments, including the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, will be eligible to take courses for free.
Earlier this month, it was announced that some €3.3 billion would be allocated to the Department of Further and Higher Education under Budget 2021.
In total, higher education funding increased from €1.74 billion to €1.93 billion – an increase of nearly €190 million.
A once-off package of €50 million to support individual students was announced by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath, as well as an increase in funding for the SUSI grant scheme.
