FAS expenditure on training rose by £69 million in 1995 to a record £358.145 million. This represents an increase of 24 per cent on 1994.
The bulk of the increase was accounted for by extra expenditure on Community Employment (CE.) schemes. The number of participants on schemes rose from 34,498 in 1994 to 54,900 in 1995.
Because of this huge increase, over half of all the money paid out by FAS to trainees in 1995 consisted of transfers from the Department of Social Welfare. If CE trainees had remained on the Live Register they would have received £185 million in dole payments.
Community Employment is now the largest single category of FAS trainees.
The traditional skill-based training courses run by the agency catered for 30,000 other unemployed people during 1995. A further 31,000 people already in jobs received training from FAS to upgrade their skills, and 2,750 apprenticeships were funded.
In contrast, central administration costs in FAS actually fell from £13.1 million in 1994 to £11.3 million in 1995. Training costs rose from £126 million to £129 million.
By the end of 1995 there was an average of 40,000 people on CE schemes at any one time. CE expenditure accounted for £270 million, out of the £358 million in direct costs spent by FAS.
The CE participants were deployed in 3,000 projects. Seventy per cent of them were on schemes in the voluntary and community sector.
Local authorities sponsored schemes involving 12 per cent of the participants. The next largest group of sponsors was schools, which employed 11 per cent.
The vast majority of CE participants (85 per cent) came from the Live Register, and nearly a third of participants were aged over 45.
Consequently the job placement rates for CE participants when they finished their courses were considerably lower than for unemployed people who managed to obtain placements in the specific, skills programmes.
In the fatter, where participants could train in such areas as electronics, construction or engineering, about two-thirds subsequently found a job, more than twice the placement rate for people finishing CE schemes.
Altogether some 2500 firms were assisted with FAS training programmes.