More PLC places for Wicklow in September – Harris

Posted June 14th, 2011 in Education

Wicklow to gain an additional 60 places on Post-Leaving Cert (PLC) courses.

Wicklow Fine Gael TD, Simon Harris, has welcomed the provision of an additional 60 places on PLC courses in Wicklow.

These additional places are part of the Government’s efforts to reduce unemployment and to enable people to re-train and re-skill where necessary. These new places will come on stream in September

Speaking after the announcement, Deputy Harris said, “As a former member of the Board of Management of the Bray Institute of Further Education (BIFE) I have seen first-hand the major benefit of PLC places in enabling people to go back to education to gain necessary skills and training for new employment. I particularly welcome the Government’s request that these extra places be prioritised for unemployed people.”

“Wicklow gained the highest amount of additional PLC places in the country and I am very pleased about this as it is an issue I had been pursuing with the Minister for Education,” stated Deputy Harris.

“Nationally the Government has now announced 1,000 additional PLC places as part of our 16,000 extra places in education and training so far.  6,000 places will be provided for FÁS Specific Training programme, 5,900 places on the Higher Education Springboard programme and 3,000 part-time places for the Back to Education Initiative. We need to give people every possible opportunity to avail of education and training and this is an area I look forward to continuing to pursue and to working with County Wicklow education providers and communities on,” concluded Deputy Harris.