Training Support Grant
What the Training Support Grant is
The Training Support Grant provides access to short term training that can support individual jobseekers to access work opportunities. The grant can be provided when an Employment Personal Adviser or Job Coach has identified an immediate skills gap or related intervention, such as obtaining certification, that is preventing a jobseeker commencing a job offer.
The scheme is not intended to replace training and activation measures that are funded under other programmes and agencies, for example, Education Training Boards.
The Training Support Grant is funded through the National Training Fund which is administered by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.
The primary focus of this scheme is on jobseekers and on supporting the activation policy of the department.
The Training Support Grant can be approved where:
- the course is up to and including level 6 on the QQI
- the intervention sought by the jobseeker forms part of the agreed personal progression or action plan to enter or re-enter the labour market
- the jobseeker has provided reasonable evidence or grounds of need (for example a job offer or a potential job offer) or has identified a skills gap or a requirement to maintain or achieve accreditation (for example, safe pass, driving licences, HACCP, security industry permits)
Training can be approved up to a maximum amount of €1000 per annum.
Payment can be approved when:
- you attend the programme
- you undertake the relevant assessment and achieve certification or
- you do not achieve certification but the trainer confirms that you undertook full assessment but did not meet the standard required
The Training Support Grant is paid directly to the training provider after training has been completed.
All applications or referrals for support under the scheme must be made through an Employment Personal Adviser or Job Coach.
An Employment Personal Adviser or Job Coach can approve a grant under this scheme where:
- during the course of an interview, a training need is identified that is not otherwise provided by DSP directly or any other state provider (such as Solas/ETB’s, Teagasc), within a reasonable length of time or at a location convenient to the jobseeker
- the intervention identified is linked to both the activation needs of the jobseeker and labour market conditions
Learn more about the scheme from staff at your local Intreo Centre or Social Welfare Branch Office.
