GARDAÍ HAVE begun a criminal investigation into a training college over allegations it took students’ money without providing the courses promised and continued to advertise courses after its Fetac accreditation had been suspended.
The Co Kilkenny college, Empower Learning Ltd trading as Empower Training, has received up to €1 million in funding from Fás and Skillnets, a State upskilling and training agency, in recent years.
A Garda investigation into the college began following a formal statement of complaint from Fás. The criminal inquiry is now being conducted by the Dublin-based Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation.
Garda sources said detectives were trying to establish if the college in Newtown, Co Kilkenny, continued to take money from students wishing to enrol in courses despite having its access to Fetac certification suspended on September 13th last.
Fetac is the Further Education and Training Awards Council.
The Garda investigation will also seek to determine if there were any irregularities with the running of courses at the college, which has now ceased trading.
The college was established eight years ago. It had been offering hundreds of places on a variety of courses including Montessori teaching, secretarial skills, executive management, coaching and psychology.
The future now appears uncertain for up to 1,000 people who have paid tuition fees but have not yet started or completed their courses, or who have completed courses but have yet to receive formal accreditation. A notice on the door at the Empower Learning Ltd college in Kilkenny city confirmed it had ceased trading.
Fetac is trying to gain access to the college to secure students’ records with a view to providing certification to those who have finished properly run courses.
Manager Stanley McHugh said Fetac last had contact with Empower chief Stephen Doran on Sunday, when Mr Doran indicated the company had ceased trading but was willing to surrender its records. Efforts to contact Mr Doran yesterday were not successful.
About 500 students who completed their assessment programmes in August are now awaiting accreditation, but this cannot be finalised until Fetac examines the college’s records. A similar number of trainees have paid for and enrolled in new courses, some of which started last month.
According to Fetac, seven alternative training centres have agreed to fulfil Empower’s commitments to those students, some of whom have paid over €2,000 in fees.