It may be too little , too late – but it’s better than nothing.
The government announced yesterday that unemployed workers will have access to 2,500 new places on part-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses from September 2009 – according to the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O’Keeffe TD.
1,500 of them will be on a range of undergraduate certificate and degree-level programmes and 1000 will be part time postgrad courses for unemployed graduates.
All the courses will be those that are supposed to support the goals of the Irish Government’s “smart economy” plan . So these will include sectors such as medical devices, biopharmaceuticals, international financial services and the food sector.
The details of when and where to apply are not yet available – but applicants must be unemployed for at least six months on 1 September 2009 to be eligible for a place on these undergraduate or postgraduate programmes.
Tuition fees will not be charged for these undergraduate and postgraduate courses though postgraduate students may be required to pay a nominal charge.