“People who have lost their jobs in the economic downturn will not have to give up their social welfare benefits to avail of the free college places being offered by the government. Education minister Batt O’Keeffe will announce today that four universities, 13 institutes of technology and the National College of Ireland have all signed up to the government plan to retrain and upskill the labour force. The 1,500 free part-time college places, which will be offered from September, will be on undergraduate certificate and degree-level programmes relating to business, the sciences, engineering and technology. Details of a further 1,000 part-time postgraduate diplomas and conversion programmes for unemployed workers will be published next week …” (more)
[Martha Kearns, Sunday Business Post, 26 July]