Training For People With Disabilities

ETB education and training courses are available to all learners including those with a disability, who meet eligibility criteria and the guidelines provided for each type of programme. In accordance with the relevant legislation, FET providers are required to offer reasonable accommodation to learners with disabilities. The nature of those accommodations varies depending on the identified needs of individual learners. Examples of reasonable accommodations may include access to personal assistants, readers, scribes, note takers and sign language interpreters, one to one tuition and others such as assistive technologies.

Learners with disabilities on Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) programmes. There is funding for specific supports from the “Fund for Students with Disabilities” (FSD), which allocates funding to further and higher education colleges for the provision of services and supports to full-time and part-time students with disabilities.

There are 17 Specialist Training Providers contracted by the ETBs, and funded by SOLAS, to provide training courses exclusively for people with disabilities, as some people with disabilities may require additional supports to meet their training needs, e.g. longer duration of training, adaptation

of the training approach and facilities. Here are a few important points for people with disabilities:

People on Disability Allowance or Blind Person’s Pension get a training allowance equivalent to their Social Welfare payment. It will be paid for the duration of their attendance on the course.