The numbers who completed FAS employment, skills and enterprise training programmes in 1997 was 92,000, an increase of 8,000 on the previous year.

In addition, 21,889 employees received FAS support through the Training Support Scheme. The authority's employment services division received notice of 50,000 vacancies from employers in all sectors.

The figures are contained in the 1997 FAS annual report. Total expenditure in 1997 was £479 million, an increase of 9 per cent on 1996. Of this £346 million was devoted to a range of community employment, skills training and other programmes and schemes, designed to help individuals overcome specific vocational training or work experience deficits.

The main sources of income for FAS were the Exchequer and the European Social Fund which, between them, contributed £480 million. "The support which FAS receives from the EU is critical to enabling us to achieve our objectives," Mr John Lynch, director general, commented in the report.

At the end of 1997 a total of 39,130 people were employed on more than 3,000 FAS supported community employment projects.

"Increasing the focus of this major programme on the long-term unemployed and other economically disadvantaged groups has resulted in a significant shift in the skills and work experience profiles of the participants," Mr Lynch said. "At the end of 1997, 96 per cent of participants joining community employment programmes were recruited from the designated long-term unemployed group."

In 1997, women accounted for 43 per cent of the participants completing FAS training and employment programmes. Some 5,569 new apprentices were registered in 1997, compared to 4,135 in 1996.