Turas Nua and Fas Course

artichoke wrote: »

Would also advise you to go to SW office to sort your course out. Once on Turas Nua, your advisor will decide if you can take up a training course with fas or any other training. It is likely you will be denied any training if it doesn't lead to fulltime employment and the course has to be full time.

The course does not need to be full-time. I just did a year on Jobs Path and also did a Part-time Springboard course. If it is a full-time course then they can give you an exemption from Jobs Path until the course is finished and then you have to return to Jobs path, because my course was part-time hours I had to do my course and attend Jobs Path. That's what they told me. To the OP. Check my post under the title 'Turas Nua and BTEA'. In my case it was a Springboard course I can't see what difference who is running the course should make. But, isn't FAS no longer in existence? Are they called Employment Services now?

artichoke wrote: »

@Bronco Bullfrog
Thanks for the info regarding courses. I was under the impression it had to be a full time course. In my case it was linked with BTEA . In order to receive BTEA the course has to be full time. I thought it would apply to all other courses too also in relation to job path.There seems to be a lot of miscommunication between Turas Nua and SW. And I guess it depends on how knowledgeable your advisor is. In my case I went straight to the SW to ask them if I can follow on studying QQI 6 Business course, because I was recently "invited"to attend job path and I was told that of course I can return to my course in September but still have to attend job path. What is news to me is that you have to return to job path after completing the college course. So that could mean that even if I found a job straight after college Turas Nua can still hassle me to claim their bonus....?!

Fas is now called Solas and is shared between Department of Social Protection and the Department of Education.

I was just posting my experience of having to attend Jobs Path and also undertaking an education course at the same time. Perhaps a student who has had to defer a year of their course for whatever reason and ended up on Jobs Path or a student who has been placed on Jobs Path during summer months could use it as an example or argument like ‘how come Springboard students can receive an exemption from having to attend Jobs Path until their course is finished’ it just seems unfair how one group of students can be be allowed to defer attending Jobs Path and another group not. A student who has not completed their studies and finds themselves on Jobs Path could mean they are placed in a job they don't want. This would disqualify them from BTEA and a student grant. This makes a nonsense of the time, not to mention the cost (often to the state) of the time they have spent studying if they cannot finish their course due to Jobs Path and its causing people anxiety which isn’t being helped by SW and Turas Nua staff not knowing what’s what.
There does seem to be a huge amount of varying experiences being posted on here concerning Turas Nua. I agree with you it seems all down to the individual personal advisor. You would have to confirm with them, if you will have to return to Jobs Path when your course ends. Turas Nua told me ‘in order to get released from Jobs Path to do a full-time springboard course I would be required to return to Jobs path when the course ends’. They do seem to want to get their hooks into you. In my case my course was part time. So I did the course but I also had to attend Jobs path. But they only brought me in every couple of weeks.
If you were to find employment immediately after finishing your course you should not have to deal with Turas Nua. You should only be required to deal with them when claiming unemployment benefit. There are many posts on here highlighting how Turas Nua are hounding people who found jobs off their own back. Turas Nua claim they are supporting people in their new employment. The general opinion seems to be not to give your new job details to Turas Nua so they can claim bonuses, to just ignore them.
There are also posts stating Turas Nua receive bonuses and posts stating they don’t. I found them very accommodating in terms of my studies whilst attending Jobs path, if they were solely out for a bonus they could have tried to ‘strong-arm’ me into any job, but this was not their approach. However, I still, like many others found it to be a waste of time. There was nothing I got from attending there, that I could not have got from the internet or visiting my local library to get books on how to conduct myself at job interviews. I kept asking them about career advice, my handler kept making a note of my requests on scraps of paper, after my repeatedly asking, she eventually confessed they had no-one who could offer career advice! She must have known that all along!

I don't think the Turas Nua advisor I had could prevent me from doing the education course, an hour before meeting her a SW welfare representative told the group of people I was with that Springboard and some other courses (I can't remember the name of them now) were options for us. My advisor did seem a bit put out by me telling her this, and then pulling paperwork out and showing it to her. It did shut her up there and then, she was baffled, she had to check it out and make some calls, the next time I saw her she told me I could do the course, I think it is up to SW they call the shots. The Turas Nua advisor could not do much about it, but having said that they just let me do the course, the rest of my time with Turas Nua was purely a box ticking exercise. It was just pure bureaucracy, SW put me on jobs path, and made me stay on it, even though the Turas Nua people did very little with me, just went through the motions.
Yes I totally agree with you, they should let students finish their courses before making them attend jobs path. It serves no purpose putting them on it until they complete their courses. In my experience Jobs path does not work.
Regarding the staff at Turas Nua, I found them to be OK people who seem to genuinely want to help. They don't come across like HR or recruitment professionals. They glossed over a lot of important stuff. Like they asked a multitude of irrelevant questions but never anything important like how did my last job end, or if I had any up to date references that I could use for job applications. Any time you go for a job interview these are relevant areas that are going to have to be covered. Turas Nua ask reams of questions but never anything like that. No recruitment agency worth its salt would ignore those kind of areas surely? They don't attempt to discover the reasons why anyone may be long term unemployed. They seem to have a set script they are working off, if you start asking them questions I found they seem to gloss over stuff and don't always address it.
I am now hearing that some employers won't even engage with Turas Nua or Seetec. Are they are shooting themselves in the foot?

Yes, I personally would be embarrassed to have Turas Nua phoning my employer checking up on me, the employer may think what's up with this person that they have to keep checking up. I don't think this aspect of Jobs Path is a good idea at all, I know they claim they are supporting the worker in their new employment but really! I can't see what kind of input or influence they are going to have with the employer.
There are a lot of posts on boards with people stating they are not going to give Turas Nua / Seetec their new employment details and ignore all communication from them once they start their new jobs. What sanctions can be placed on someone who is now in work. I don't think Turas Nua / Seetec are going to take them to court for breach of contract?
I see there is also a Jobs Plus initiative whereby Social welfare will offer a payment to an employer who gives a job to a long term unemployed person. The employer can receive a payment of €10,000 as an incentive.

Well, I am sure the government will have some clauses and time constraints about how long the employee has to be in the job before they pay out and how many times the employer can claim the jobs plus payment.
Regarding TN and SEETEC being linked to DSP and revenue. Yes, that sounds feasible in theory.

I mentioned earlier DSP representative and Turas Nua advisors in the same building. The DSP representative gives a presentation to the new intake of people going into the Jobs Path programme. DSP rep tells us we can do education courses such as Springboard. These are options open to us. Immediately after the presentation I tell this to my Turas Nua advisor, and I told her I had already registered for a course. That was news to her! Totally knocked her bandy! She had no idea Springboard courses were an option. It definitely was not in her brief. We were there to find jobs. Perfect case of the left hand not talking to the right hand.

As to what access TN /Seetec can get to people's new employers or if they will continue to pursue details through other government agencies is anyone's guess. People are saying TN / Seetec have been hounding them for months to get their employers details, so maybe there is a limit to what access they can get. But there wasn't a whole lot of linking going on between DSP and Turas Nua concerning the information being given to their clients concerning options open to them, Turas Nua were totally in the dark as to what DSP were telling their clients concerning courses you can do even if you are on jobs path. The map didn't match the territory that day!! :P I wouldn't mind, but I literally walked out of one room to the room next door, all under the same roof! Got two different stories! Ho hum. Adios!