News & Events

On Wednesday 25th May, Minister for Education and Skills Ruairi Quinn, TD launched a new initiative, Springboard, which will provide 6,000 new places on higher education programmes for unemployed people. The initiative is targeted at those who were previously working but have lost their jobs or were made redundant and who, with some upskilling, could fill current or future job shortages.

Dublin Business School is excited to be part of this initiative which will help secure the future of our economy. The college is providing the unemployed the opportunity to reskill or upskill for free under a range of 13 approved and accredited courses, identified as providing training that will improve the future skills of the economy, in a range of business areas where sustainable employment may arise as the economy recovers including business, finance, innovation and cloud technologies.
 
Speaking at the launch Minister Quinn stated, "We have a very talented workforce, but the loss of employment in traditional sectors such as construction, manufacturing and retail has meant that many of these qualified and experienced people are now out of work. At the same time, we know that there are skills shortages in certain areas. By providing focused up-skilling and retraining programmes, such as those offered through Springboard, we can match those vacancies with a newly re-skilled workforce and get people back to work.  To make it easier to apply for these places, a single web portal for all Springboard related activities is being used - Bluebrick.ie. It will operate as a kind of mini-CAO for the Springboard courses, but without the pressure of the points system."
 
Springboard, which is managed by the Higher Education Authority, will allow those who undertake the courses to retain their benefits and if they find a job they will still be permitted and encouraged to finish their course. A total of 34 institutions in both the public and private sector will offer programmes. Potential students will apply online through Bluebrick.ie, which is the central clearing system for part time courses.
 
Chairman of the HEA, John Hennessy added at the launch, "The higher education system has to and is playing in tackling the unemployment crisis. Springboard has been designed to be as user friendly as possible and the universities, institutes and colleges genuinely want to assist anybody who through upskilling can get back to work."

Programmes available at Dublin Business School through the Springboard Initiative are:

Certificate in Financial Services (Level 7)

Certificate in Risk & Financial Analysis (Level 9)

Certificate in Project Management for ICT Professionals (Level 7)