Brexit training fund problems leave charities 'struggling'
They say they now have to find money up front to pay for training work under the Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).
The UKSPF replaced the European Union's European Social Fund (ESF) in March 2023, which came to an end in Northern Ireland as a result of Brexit.
The chief executive of East Belfast Mission, Rev Andrew Irvine, told BBC News NI that charities are "struggling" and the new funding arrangement "beggars belief".
The UKSPF provides funding to organisations in Northern Ireland for "levelling up" their communities and helping people find employment through training.
East Belfast Mission is one of five groups which run the Belfast Works project.
Belfast Works offers free training for jobs including barbering, classroom assistants, fitness instructors, catering, healthcare, and security guards.
But Rev Irvine said that East Belfast Mission is expected to find £180,000 a quarter "out of nowhere" to fund the training and then "wait for the government to pay us".
"If we can't do that then this community - in which 67% of those of working age are currently not in work - lose this service, and East Belfast Mission needs to make 17 people redundant and the partnership needs to make 96 people redundant," he added.
He said that overall Belfast Works had more than 100 staff and worked with 400 people a month to help them get into work.
Eight staff members have already been made redundant, he added.
The UKSPF website said it would pay delivery organisations "in Northern Ireland in advance, on a six monthly cycle".
But Rev Andrew Irvine said that was not happening and that charities were having to "give the government free finance".
"They're saying we're not going to fund you until the end of each quarter, so for Belfast Works that means five local community organisations trying to finance the government to the tune of a million pounds a quarter," he said.
GEMS Northern Ireland is also part of Belfast Works, and trains people for a range of careers, as well as running classes in English and numeracy.
It's chief executive, Susan Russam, told BBC News NI that they had 18 staff and had helped train thousands of people through the Belfast Works project.
"Our salary bill for Belfast Works Connect, which is due to be paid next week, is just short of £50,000," she said.
"We can find that in April, but we aren't going to be able to find that in May as well.
"I think that's a little bit unconscionable to expect a small charity like ours, who were already working supporting this project and making a real difference to communities and lives, to have to struggle to actually pay our wages."
In a statement, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said it would "work closely with these UKSPF-funded projects to ensure that they continue to receive funding on schedule, so they can keep supporting the most vulnerable in society".
"Our payment schedule remains the same as in previous years," MHCLG added.
However an email from MHCLG, seen by BBC News NI, acknowledged "cashflow for your organisation and partners may present challenges."
Mohammad Alhamwi and Olena Karpenko are among students taking a customer service course at GEMS.
Mohammad, who is originally from Syria, said the course was "really valuable".
"I'm looking to develop myself as much as I can," he said.
"The UK is about having a good career, certificates, lots of skills."
Olena Karpenko came to Northern Ireland from Ukraine, where she was a teacher.
"For me, it's very important - new information, new experience, experienced teachers, supportive people," she said.
"I'm very happy to be here, it's helped me a lot."
Rev Irvine said the situation clashed with the government's aspiration to get people back to work.
"It absolutely flies in the face of the chancellor's position and it actually really, really irritates me when I see the chancellor saying we're going to reduce the welfare payments, but the solution is to get people into work - and then this, this is how they're going about getting people into work?," he said.
"If this idea is to get people out of poverty by getting them into work, then let's fund this properly and stop behaving like this with the delivery partners."
Funding for NI charities 'switched off overnight'
'Bleak time until EU funds are replaced'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Politicized kids? Rogue teachers? A contentious education battle hasn't calmed in S.F.
As the U.S. has split into divisive camps over racial issues, transgender rights, the war in Gaza, women's health and more, the teaching of ethnic studies has become among the most contentious educational fights in California and other states, dividing communities and turning formerly friendly PTA parents into adversaries. Not even liberal-minded San Francisco has escaped the battle. Ethnic studies has become something of a symbolic punching bag for what some call public education overreach, where ideology and activism subvert the basic objectives of reading, writing and 'rithmatic. Based on the state Department of Education's definition, the curriculum is meant to focus on the histories, cultures, struggles and contributions of historically marginalized groups, which are often untold in conventional U.S. history courses. That includes addressing the causes of racism and other forms of bigotry — ultimately so that young people develop a 'social consciousness and knowledge' to contribute to the public good and strengthen democracy. Some school districts across the country have argued over whether to teach the course at all. More frequently, the debate in the Bay Area and elsewhere has centered on what to teach and how to teach it. Should it foster awareness and pride in students from diverse backgrounds or focus on white supremacy, racism and other forms of oppression to help students understand the world? And what should parents or students do when educators venture into personal opinions and promote their own political views? 'There are folks who would prefer that we don't have any of these conversations in schools,' said Anna Klaster, principal of San Francisco's Independent High School and president of the administrators union. 'On the other side there are folks who think we should be having all the conversations.' Klaster said she has seen parents opt their kids out of English classes because a reading assignment included a gay protagonist or because a text referenced magic. At the same time, she has had to help a teacher who was uncomfortable with the way her students wanted to talk about controversial subjects in her classroom. 'Everyone has feelings around this,' Klaster said. In San Francisco, efforts to appease vocal community members riled up about ethnic studies haven't seemed to work. During the past school year, some community members, as well as conservative organizations outside the state, have raised concerns about the content of ethnic studies courses, saying they were antisemitic, or promoted anti-capitalist activism, or dwelled on white supremacy, among other issues. It was the first year freshmen were required to take the year-long course, which the school board had added as a graduation requirement. While district officials reportedly considered pausing the course for a year, they will instead replace the district's controversial, homegrown curriculum with off-the-shelf content this fall. That didn't calm critics, either. While the district hasn't officially selected which coursework to use, one possibility is 'Voices,' created by a national social studies textbook publisher, which a group of parents and community leaders immediately panned. It 'promotes 'dismantling of privilege,' and encourages students to see themselves as part of a political movement,' the oppositional group said in a statement Thursday. 'Students are instructed to create protest art, reflect on how they are 'complicit in injustice,' and explore 'how to resist systems of power.'' The group called on the district to suspend the graduation requirement and make the course an elective while initiating an open process to adopt an ethnic studies curriculum. 'This so-called curriculum indoctrinates our students to believe in the premise that capitalism is inherently exploitative of certain minority groups,' said district parent Jason LaMacchia in the statement. 'This is a political point of view, not critical thinking, and it has no place being taught as fact in a public school setting.' While opposition to ethnic studies has been loud, it's unclear how widespread it is. Last year, the district saw just three complaints related to curriculum through the uniform complaint process, although officials did not identify the courses and it was not immediately known if the investigation into each was complete. Parents and students can also raise concerns about instruction at the school level with administrators or teachers, and there are procedures to address them, Klaster said. San Francisco school board member Matt Alexander said that the issues raised about ethnic studies really apply to all subjects, but have been targeted at one specific course. 'The teacher's job is not to have an opinion,' he said. If you start out with the answer, you've undermined the students ability to think for themselves. I think studying protest movements is important, but telling somebody what to think is not good at all.' Alexander noted that ethnic studies has a 'ton of support' and research showing that, academically, ethnic studies was a boon for city students. More than 11,000 San Francisco high school students took the elective course between 2008 and 2023, most commonly freshmen, with 36% of ninth graders enrolled in the 2022-2023 school year, according to a study by the UC Irvine School of Education. Intriguingly, students who took the course had GPA nearly 0.2 grade points higher in all subjects compared to those who didn't — considered a 'large effect' in education policy research, authors said. The higher grades were seen across all demographics and likely pushed between 400 and 700 students into eligibility for the University of California, which requires a 3.0 GPA, according to the study. One city parent said the course was arguably the best class his freshman son took at Lowell High School last year, with 'critical thinking skills, creativity of teaching methods, and material covered.' 'As we experienced it at Lowell this year, Ethnic Studies is basically a very solid history class with a critical perspective,' Jack Brown said in an email to the Chronicle. 'I should note that I was personally very skeptical at the beginning of the year, worried that my son's class would be superficial identity politics, sloganeering, but that was not at all the reality.'
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
$6 billion school funding freeze sparks outcry over ‘cruel betrayal' of students
This story was published by The 19th and reprinted with permission. State officials and teacher union leaders are reeling after President Donald Trump's decision Tuesday to freeze more than $6 billion in federal K-12 education funding for the upcoming school year - a move critics say will further kneecap schools after mass cuts and layoffs at the Department of Education earlier this year raised widespread fears about the future of public education in the United States. The Trump administration told school officials that it is withholding funding typically released July 1 for services such as reading and math support, summer and after-school programs and assistance for migrant students and English learners. The nation's two largest states, California and Texas, stand to lose the most funding due to the freeze, but no state will go unaffected if the funds aren't released imminently. The National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest labor union, said that schools could be forced to slash the salaries of educators or begin layoffs, both moves that could cause classroom sizes to balloon and destabilize this woman-dominated profession. NEA President Becky Pringle called the freeze "outrageous and unconscionable." "Withholding billions in promised federal education funding that students need and states had planned to use to support children in their states is a cruel betrayal of students, especially those who rely on critical support services," Pringle said in a statement. "Schools are already grappling with severe teacher shortages, burnout, and under-resourced classrooms, and here comes the federal government ripping resources away from public schools." Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education. Pringle said that withholding federal funding is part of the Trump administration's pattern of hobbling public education by starving it of key resources in an effort to champion private and religious schools that aren't obligated to admit the most vulnerable students, particularly those with learning disabilities or special needs or who belong to marginalized groups based on their race, religion or gender identity. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), said in a statement that Trump has attacked public education since the day he took office, describing his funding freeze as an "illegal" and ideologically-driven ploy to defund education. The programs affected, she pointed out, are congressionally approved. The Trump administration "has delayed disbursements of billions in desperately needed federal funds for student services and instruction, as the Education Department weighs whether the money will be spent according to Trump's 'priorities,'" Weingarten said. "This is another illegal usurpation of the authority of the Congress. Plus, it directly harms the children in our nation." Instead of planning for the upcoming school year, K-12 public school leaders across the country are left uncertain about what services they can provide or even who they can hire, Weingarten said. Tony Thurmond, California's superintendent of public instruction, estimated that the Trump administration is denying roughly $1 billion to the Golden State. He said in a statement that the administration did not legally justify why they're withholding the funds. "The administration is punishing children for the sole reason that states refuse to cater to Trump's political ideology," Thurmond said. "The administration is withholding funds that employ vital school staff who provide critical resources and supports for learning for all students. Every child will feel the impact of this disruption delivered shortly before the start of the school year, when our students, educators, and families should be anticipating the year ahead and making plans to support our children's learning and growth." Related: Tracking Trump: His actions to dismantle the Education Department, and more He noted that California has previously taken legal action against the Trump administration and is prepared to do the same now to ensure that it can serve public school students in the state. Using an analysis from the Learning Policy Institute, the Texas AFT estimates that the Lone Star State will lose $660.8 million unless the federal funds are released soon. As Texas endures a severe teacher shortage, the program that will be most affected supports effective instruction, or professional development and recruitment/retention efforts for educators in the state. "It wasn't enough for DOGE [the federal Department of Government Efficiency] to cut the Department of Education staff and programming that protect the rights of our most vulnerable students," said Zeph Capo, president of Texas AFT, in a statement. "It wasn't enough for Texas special education classrooms to lose over half a million in needed federal funds. And it apparently wasn't enough for Gov. Greg Abbott to veto a program that feeds the poorest kids in our state over summer break. No, Trump had to take hundreds of millions more from Texas schools already struggling amid rising costs and chronic underfunding." Capo was especially outraged that the freeze takes aim at programs in the state to boost student achievement, given Texas leaders' emphasis on academic performance when they threaten government takeovers of school districts, which the Houston Independent School District has experienced. He asked why Texas lawmakers aren't speaking up about Trump's impoundment of the funding. "If they won't say a word to challenge Trump's cuts, it's an admission that they share his goal of undermining and ultimately privatizing public education in this country," Capo said. "Texas students deserve classrooms that are fully funded and talented teachers who are paid what they're worth. Texas voters deserve leaders who will fight tooth and nail for our schools." National education leaders noted that the funding freeze coincides with the Senate's recent passage of Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which they argue will also hurt children in this country. The bill has moved to the House for a vote. Weingarten characterized the legislation as the "big, ugly betrayal of a bill." The bill, she said "will kick millions off healthcare and snatch food away from children, all while handing massive tax cuts to Trump's billionaire friends." The post $6 billion school funding freeze sparks outcry over 'cruel betrayal' of students appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
TutorABC Launches ChatAI 1.0 Powered by TutorABC: Redefining Speaking Practice with AI Innovation
TAIPEI, July 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- TutorABC, a global leader in online English and Chinese education, announces the launch of ChatAI 1.0 Powered by TutorABC. This next-generation AI voice speaking app is designed to help learners build fluency and confidence through real-time, intelligent speaking practice — while reinforcing the central role of live, professional teaching. Built as part of TutorABC's integrated learning ecosystem, ChatAI supports students between live lessons, helping them speak more, review faster, and get more value from their time with their live teachers. Samuel Yang, Co-Chairman and CEO of TutorABC: "This is a major leap forward. With real-time, natural voice conversations and instant feedback, ChatAI 1.0 uses cutting-edge AI to give every learner a smart speaking partner in their pocket. It's fast, flexible, and incredibly effective — and when combined with live teaching, it sets a new standard for how language learning can be delivered." Start 7-day free trial to experience ChatAI: ChatAI 1.0 – What It Can Do Practice Real Conversations – Talk with natural-sounding AI and adjust voice or speed Understand with Bilingual Support – Get translations and hints when you're stuck Improve How You Speak – Get pronunciation scores and sentence suggestions instantly Learn Useful Topics – Choose from 1,000+ real-world themes like business or travel All features are designed to enhance live classes with professional teachers — helping students arrive more prepared, and leave with deeper confidence. Start 7-day free trial to experience ChatAI: AI + Human = Better Together ChatAI 1.0 complements TutorABC's live instruction — including 1-on-1, 1-on-4, and group Masterclasses. Rodney Miles, Co-Chairman of TutorABC: "AI brings consistency, speed, and data-driven feedback. Our teachers bring human connection, cultural insight, and encouragement. Together, they create a learning experience that's both powerful and personal — helping students stay motivated, build real-world skills, and enjoy faster progress." TutorABC's approach ensures AI supports what matters most: meaningful time spent with real teachers. Start 7-day free trial to experience ChatAI: Ongoing Innovation TutorABC's R&D teams are continually enhancing both ChatAI and our live teaching systems using the latest advances in: Natural Language Processing (NLP) Speech recognition and synthesis (TTS/ASR) Conversational AI, pronunciation modeling, and adaptive learning engines These upgrades are built using research and frameworks from MIT, the Stanford NLP Group, and Cambridge's ALTA Institute. By improving both AI tools and the classroom experience, we're making the entire learning journey — from self-practice to live instruction with teachers — smarter, more connected, and more effective. Start 7-day free trial to experience ChatAI: Try It Free Today ChatAI 1.0 Powered by TutorABC is fully integrated into the TutorABC App. New students can access a free trial for a limited time. It's the perfect companion to live classes — offering flexible speaking practice and better results in every session with a real teacher. Start 7-day free trial to experience ChatAI: About TutorABC TutorABC is a global leader in online education, trusted by learners for over 20 years. At the core of our platform is live human teaching — delivered through 1-on-1, 1-on-4, and group Masterclasses led by certified professionals. This foundation is supported by: Smart Tools – Flashcards, podcasts, and articles AI Support – ChatAI, podcast suggestions, and roleplays Immersive Classrooms – Interactive tools and replays Dynamic Reports – Track progress and get improvement tips We also offer study abroad consulting (with 500+ university partners in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia) and corporate training used by professionals from Apple, Microsoft, TSMC, Micron, Toyota, Yamaha, Shiseido, Citibank, PCA Life Insurance, and more. TutorABC's content partners include Oxford and Cambridge University Press, ETS, Barron's, National Geographic, and global sources like CNN, BBC, The Economist, Reuters, Forbes, NBA, and MLB. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE TutorABC Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
