Roadmap for an evaluation of the National Training Fund

The National Training Fund (NTF), established in 2000, plays a central role in Ireland’s workforce development and employment policy. Its purpose is to fund training that: i) supports individuals in employment; ii) assists jobseekers in entering or re-entering the labour market; and iii) contributes to identifying current and future skill needs. Administered by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS), the NTF supports approximately 18 major initiatives across these three areas, which are delivered by multiple agencies, including the Higher Education Authority (HEA), SOLAS, Skillnet Ireland and others. 

Funded by a levy on employers, the size of the NTF has grown significantly in recent years, driven by both increased levy rates and overall employment growth. Annual spend from the NTF rose from €357 million in 2017 to approximately €909 million in 2023. This reflects the scale of public investment in developing Ireland’s human capital and highlights the importance of ensuring that these resources are used effectively. As of the end of 2023, the NTF held a surplus of approximately €1.54 billion, and this was estimated to be €1.8 billion at the end of 2024. In April 2025, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science received approval from the Government to prepare a bill to amend the Act under which the NTF was established (the 2000 National Training Fund Act), so that the fund’s surplus could be used to provide additional supports to the higher education sector; this sum amounts to €1.485 billion over a six-year period between 2025 and 2030.

The NTF has played a significant role in funding workforce development initiatives in Ireland over the past 25 years. In doing this, its aim has been to assist individuals to acquire new skills, enhance their employability and, ultimately, progress within the labour market. In 2023, over 87 per cent of NTF funding was directed towards 13 major labour market-focused programmes, including SOLAS’s Training People for Employment and Apprenticeship schemes, and a number of HEA-managed initiatives (e.g., Enterprise-Focused Higher Education Provision, Consortium-Led Apprenticeships and Springboard+). 

While some individual initiatives of the NTF have been reviewed on an ad hoc basis over time, this is the first systematic overview that has been undertaken to assess the extent to which all initiatives funded under the NTF can be evaluated using counterfactual impact evaluation (CIE) and, where CIE is not feasible, the most suitable methodologies based on project structure and objectives. CIE is recognised internationally as being the best tool for identifying the casual link between policies and/or programmes and their effects. It allows for a deeper understanding of the true impact of an intervention, helping to isolate the effects directly attributable to a policy or programme. It is a matter of national importance to ensure that evaluations of publicly funded training initiatives are undertaken, and that they are done in a timely, independent and methodologically sound manner, so that policymakers can make data-driven decisions to optimise the effectiveness of NTF investments in employee and workforce development.