Free Healthcare Training

LHP Skillnet know that a great deal can be done to support the private healthcare sector, besides training people who are already employed. If you are currently a jobseeker and wish to upskill or reskill, Skills Connect is for you.

WHAT IS SKILLS CONNECT?

Skills Connect offers free, online training which will help you reskill and develop the skills that employers are looking for today.

OUR SKILLS CONNECT PROGRAMMES

Certificate in Healthcare Support (QQI Level 5, Major Award)

The Skills Connect Certificate in Healthcare Support is a fully funded programme leading to a QQI Level 5 Major Award. The programme has become the industry-standard qualification for anyone wishing to work as a Healthcare Assistant in the Republic of Ireland.

We offer a number of FREE places to those who are seeking employment and wish to increase their employment prospects through relevant training. If you are eligible, you can enroll on our Certificate in Healthcare Support without impacting on your social welfare payments or benefits (for those who are in receipt of such payments).

In 2021, we trained 221 jobseekers to participate in the workforce as Healthcare Assistants. Our Certificate in Healthcare Support programme is hugely successful and provides participants with a real pathway to a new career.

The programme commences a number of times each year.

For further details on the Skills Connect Certificate in Healthcare Support programme , click HERE.

SKILLS CONNECT ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Eligible Unemployed Individuals

If you are in receipt of one of the following social welfare payments, you are eligible:

If you are not in receipt of a welfare payment but your circumstances match the following, you are eligible.

Jobseekers Allowance (JA)

Jobseekers Benefit (JB)

Back to Work Enterprise Allowance

Jobseeker’s Credits only

Blind Pension

Disability Allowance

Farm/Fish Assist

Illness Benefit, Invalidity Pension, One-Parent Family Payment, Rural Social Scheme, Supplementary Welfare Allowance, Adult Dependants (of listed schemes)

Former sole traders and business owners

Recent graduates who are unemployed

Homemakers

Retirees seeking to return to the workplace

Individuals who fail to qualify for social welfare payments because of a spouse’s income

Individuals signing on for credits but in receipt of no social welfare payment

Individuals who have recently accepted redundancy payments

Non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals holding immigration Stamp 4

Ineligible Unemployed Individuals

Skillnet Ireland, under its current mandate, does not provide training to unemployed people who fall into any of the following categories:

Current participants on Jobs Initiative (JI) Schemes
Non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals holding immigration Stamp 1, Stamp 2 or Stamp 3
Full-time students engaged in second or third-level education.

Full eligibility criteria are available on the Skillnet Ireland website HERE.

OTHER SKILLS CONNECT PROGRAMMES

Several other Skillnet Networks participate in the Skillnet Ireland Skills Connect Programme. This initiative is designed exclusively for unemployed people and includes free training in skills in demand by companies combined with direct access to employers through meaningful work placements. For information on other Skillnet Networks offering free training programmes for those seeking employment, visit the Skillnet Ireland website HERE.