The announcement was made on Thursday afternoon.
Thirty six education institutions in Ireland are offering 6,471 higher education places to jobseekers, as well as those who are employed and self-employed and wish to upskill.
Richard Bruton, Minister for Education and Skills, and Minister of State, John Halligan, made the announcement under the Springboard+ 2017 scheme.
The scheme was initially launched in 2011 when unemployment was at 15% – that has now reduced by more than half to 6.8%.
There are nearly 200 courses on offer under the scheme, which cover areas including part-time manufacturing courses, entrepreneurship, hospitality and financial services.
It also offers full-time and part-time ICT skills conversion courses to nearly 2,000 people availing of the full-time and part-time schemes in total.
Ninety percent of the courses on the programme have a work placement element.
To date, over 35,000 places have been provided by Springboard+ and over €134m has been allocated to the scheme since 2011. It also offers courses from diplomas through to masters level.
This this the full list of available courses and applications will open in June for the 2017 programme.
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