Expand+The Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme is an educational opportunities scheme for unemployed persons which is funded by the Department of Education and Science with assistance from the European Social Fund. The Scheme is operated through the Vo...

Hide-The Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme is an educational opportunities scheme for unemployed persons which is funded by the Department of Education and Science with assistance from the European Social Fund. The Scheme is operated through the Vocational Education Committees and provides a special range of courses designed to meet the education and training needs of unemployed people.

The aims of the scheme are:
- to give unemployed people education and training opportunities which will develop their employability

- to prepare people to go into paid employment or on to further opportunities leading to paid employment

Expand+Eligibility criteria are determined by the Department of Education and Skills.

To qualify for VTOS a person must:
- be at least 21 years of age at the commencement of the course,

- be in receipt of an unemployment payment or signing for c...

Hide-Eligibility criteria are determined by the Department of Education and Skills.

To qualify for VTOS a person must:
- be at least 21 years of age at the commencement of the course,

- be in receipt of an unemployment payment or signing for credits for at least 6 months*.

Also, the course must be provided or approved by the local VEC for the purposes of the VTOS scheme.

A limited number of places are available to persons in receipt of One Parent Family Payment, Disability Allowance, Illness Benefit, Blind Pension, Invalidity Pension, Deserted Wife's Benefit/Allowance, Widow's/Widower's Contributory/Non Contributory Pension and Prisoner's Wife's Allowance and to qualified spouses/partners of persons eligible to participate in VTOS.

Periods spent on VTOS, FS training schemes, Community Employment, Job Initiative, Youthreach or time in prison can count towards the 6 month qualifying period.

Expand+This programme was written to be shared with Department of Education and Skills funded providers who are registered with QQI and wish to offer certification to their learners in a Level 5 QQI Certificate in Community Care 5M2786.

The overall aim o...

Hide-This programme was written to be shared with Department of Education and Skills funded providers who are registered with QQI and wish to offer certification to their learners in a Level 5 QQI Certificate in Community Care 5M2786.

The overall aim of the programme is to provide the learner with the opportunity to enable the learner to acquire the knowledge, skill, and competence to work under supervision in a variety of community care settings and or to progress to further and or higher education and training. There are 22 programme modules in this programme. Upon successful completion of a minimum of 8 programme modules the learner may achieve the required 120 credits for a level 5 QQI major award.

The programme may be offered to the learner on a full time or a part time basis and has been designed to be sufficiently flexible so that it may meet the needs of the learner who accesses programmes through many different avenues in [Named Provider]. Overall the programme is based on duration of 1200 hours (typical learner effort), to include both directed and self directed learning.

Upon successful completion of this programme, the learner will have many transfer and progression options available to him/her. The learner may transfer to a programme leading to certification in one of the other level 5 QQI major or special purpose awards either with [Named Provider] or another QQI registered provider.

The learner may also progress to other appropriate programmes leading to awards at the next level of the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) with [Named Provider] or another QQI registered provider. Alternatively the learner may be eligible to apply to progress to the next or higher levels of the NFQ with a higher education provider.