Fás chairman Peter McLoone has said all its members will resign in the wake of a damning report by the Comptroller and Auditor General on expenditure controls at the agency.
The report found there was little or no response from the executive board to large and repeated overspending on advertising during the period 2002-2008.
Speaking on RTÉ's
This Weekprogramme today, Mr McLoone signalled the board of directors will meet shortly and formally announce their standing down.
"I'm satisfied that ... the board will decide that it should step down and co-operate fully with an orderly
transition to a new board."
He said a time frame for the appointment of a new board had yet to be clarified, but the present board would co-operate completely with the transition.
Mr McLoone, who is also the general secretary of trade union Impact, said there was no instruction from the Government for the 17 directors to step down.
Insisting they remained fit to serve, the chairman said they were resigning because they did not want the misspending scandal to detract from the work of Fás.
Mr McLoone said the current board had strengthened oversight at the agency and introduced practices to prevent a repeat of what had happened before.
On Thursday, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan said she would accept the resignations of Fás board members if they were offered.
Ms Coughlan said her representative on the Fás board had told a board meeting on Thursday that she intended introducing legislation during this sitting of the Oireachtas to change its structure.