Is this the start of something new? Students who enrol on part-time PLC courses, which are to be piloted this autumn, are likely to be eligible for means-tested maintenance grants, E&L has learned. However, students enrolled on part-time third-level courses are ineligible to apply for such grants. It was only last autumn that students on PLC courses were grant aided for the first time. The fact that part-time PLC students may now be eligible for grants could provide a lever for third-level students taking part-time courses.

The new pilot programme, which will provide up to 900 places on VTOS, PLC, Youth Reach and Senior Traveller Training Centre programmes on a part-time basis, was announced last week by Willie O'Dea, Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science. Until now, these courses have operated on a full-time basis only.

"The lack of part-time options for the various back to education programmes has been a major barrier to access in the past for many individuals," the Minister says. "If we want to encourage more people back into education by presenting part-time options, it would be nonsensical if we didn't fund them."