SOLAS eCollege: Ireland’s Online FET Provision and How It Is Procured

SOLAS runs eCollege as Ireland's national online learning service for further education and training. It is the part of the Irish funded-training system that is most often overlooked, partly because it does not look like the rest of it: there is no network to join and no employer application to make. Courses are commissioned centrally and made available online. Our CPD course library sets out what we offer and how it is certified.

What eCollege is

eCollege is SOLAS's online provision within the further education and training system, funded from the same source as the rest of it. SOLAS describes the intention as a single place where nationally accessible online courses can be found, widening what is available to FET learners beyond what any individual Education and Training Board could offer locally.

Eligibility, course fees where any apply, and the enrolment route differ by learner circumstance and change over time, so check the current position with SOLAS or your local ETB rather than relying on a general guide. What does not change is where the money comes from: the National Training Fund, financed by the 1% employer levy.

How the course catalogue is actually built

This is the part almost nobody outside procurement knows, and it matters to any provider with online content.

SOLAS does not build eCollege's catalogue itself. It runs a framework agreement for the provision of online courses and related services, under which external providers are appointed and then compete for individual course requirements. The 2023 competition was published on eTenders on 23 July 2023 under reference 2312-SO-E, with a submission deadline of 25 August 2023 and a contract duration of 48 months.

The framework is divided into four lots, and providers could apply for more than one:

• ICT and digital skills
• Business management skills
• Green skills and sustainability skills
• Other skills

Once appointed, framework members are not guaranteed work. Individual requirements are awarded through mini-competitions among the relevant lot's members, weighted on quality and cost rather than price alone.

Who gets appointed, and whether you have to be Irish

You do not. Virtual College, a UK-based provider, holds appointments under the business management and other skills lots. That single fact answers the question most non-Irish providers assume disqualifies them, and it tells you the framework is open to providers established outside Ireland who can meet the procurement conditions.

Appointed members must comply with Irish and EU procurement, competition and taxation law, maintain data protection controls, and provide transparent reporting and contract management. These are ordinary public-contract obligations rather than an accreditation regime, which is the significant difference between this route and the accredited-provider models used in several other countries.

What this means if you want in

The framework is a closed door between competitions. A 48-month term from the 2023 award points to a re-tender around 2027, and the practical consequence is blunt: miss the window and you wait four years.

So the work is preparation rather than application. Three things are worth doing well before a notice appears. Register on eTenders and set alerts against the contracting authority, SOLAS, rather than relying on keyword matching, because a notice titled as a framework for online courses will not contain the word "accountancy". Get the standard procurement documentation in order, since public competitions turn on financial standing, insurance and references as much as on content. And decide which lot you are credible in, because a strong bid in one lot beats a thin bid across four.

It is a different kind of effort from the network model. Skillnet Ireland commissions through industry networks and is relationship-led; eCollege is a procurement exercise with published rules and fixed dates. Both ultimately draw on the same fund.

Frequently asked questions

Can an employer send staff to eCollege courses?

eCollege is learner-facing provision within the FET system rather than an employer grant scheme. Employers looking for funded training for staff are generally directed to the SOLAS and ETB employer supports or to a Skillnet network.

Is the framework the only way onto eCollege?

The framework is the route SOLAS used to appoint external online providers in the 2023 competition. Any other arrangement would be a matter for SOLAS, and worth asking about directly rather than assuming.

When does the current framework expire?

The published contract duration was 48 months from award, which points to a re-tender around 2027. Confirm the position on eTenders rather than planning to that estimate, since frameworks can be extended or replaced early.

Which lot does finance or healthcare content sit in?

The four lots do not map neatly onto professional subject areas, and that is worth thinking through before a competition opens rather than during one.

Accountancy, finance, governance and compliance content has no lot of its own. In practice it sits in business management skills, which is also where general management, leadership and professional-skills content competes. Data, analytics, automation and AI-for-finance content arguably fits ICT and digital skills instead, where the competition is specialist technology providers. Sustainability reporting and ESG content has a natural home in green skills, which is the newest of the four and probably the least crowded. Healthcare and care-sector training, having no obvious lot, would fall to other skills.

The strategic point is that the same catalogue could be pitched into three different lots with three different competitor sets, and the strongest position is not necessarily the most obvious one. A finance provider bidding ESG content into green skills is competing against fewer incumbents than the same provider bidding management content into business management skills.

Does being on one lot help with another?

Appointment is lot-specific, so work under one lot does not create an entitlement to compete in another. A provider wanting breadth has to qualify for each lot it intends to bid in, which is the argument for choosing carefully rather than applying everywhere.