Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 January 2018
220. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Education and Skills his views on each recommendation (details supplied) as contained in the National Competitiveness Council report, Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2017; his plans to implement the policy recommendations which he has statutory remit for; and the timeframe for implementation. [4054/18]
View answerThe issues and recommendations highlighted in the National Competitiveness Council report are being considered by my Department. There is already work underway on all these issues.
National Training Fund Review
As part of budget 2018 I announced major reforms to the National Training Fund (NTF), which will address the recommendations outlined in National Competitiveness Council report. There will be additional and refocused expenditure deployed on programmes directly relevant to employers, including an expansion of the apprenticeship and traineeship programmes and enhanced funding to Skillnets to provide in company training. The NTF will also be more aligned with employer needs and as an initial step the composition of programmes has been reviewed to bring greater alignment with employer needs. Funding for ‘in-employment’ has risen by 10% in 2018. There is currently a comprehensive independent review of the NTF ongoing and this will guide strategic decisions on its structure and future direction in order to inform budget 2019.
ICT
The high-level ICT Skills forecast for the period 2018-2022 is currently under development and is due to report in Q1, 2018.
Apprenticeships
As set out in our Action Plan to Expand Apprenticeship and Traineeship in Ireland, my Department is, in conjunction with SOLAS, currently reviewing the pathways to participation in apprenticeship in a range of diverse groups, including female participation. The review, which commenced last year, will be completed later this year.
Currently, there are over 5,000 employers using the apprenticeship system as a talent pipeline in Ireland and the majority of these are SME companies. The number of participating employers is continually increasing and as part of the current expansion of apprenticeship in Ireland it is expected that, by 2020, more than 7,000 employers will be taking on apprentices. The Apprenticeship Council and industry-led consortia are actively monitoring and working on employer participation in apprenticeship.
In 2017, there was a second national call for proposals for new apprenticeships to be developed. This provided industry-led groups the opportunity to work with education providers to develop proposals for new apprenticeships in their individual sectors. Last month, 26 new national apprenticeships were approved for further development in areas ranging from animation to healthcare.
To help communicate the expansion work, a phased communication campaign began last year with a focus on public relations, events and digital media. As a result there has been a large increase in media coverage of apprenticeships and a strong social media presence has been established across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. The campaign’s initial focus was on potential apprentices, including women, and key influencers such as guidance counsellors and parents. In the year ahead there will be an increased focus on employer engagement, including SMEs.
FET
As part of the annual Further Education and Training (FET) service planning process, and taking into account the findings from the research commissioned by SOLAS on Barriers to participation in Further Education and Training which was completed and published last year, as well as other relevant research, and building on good practice in the Education and Training Board (ETB) sector, funding applications to SOLAS will be required to provide details on existing and new initiatives to address barriers to participation in FET.
In support of the targets set by the National Skills Strategy to increase participation in life-long learning overall, the SOLAS Corporate Plan 2017-2019 published last year, has set the target of a 10% increase in FET lifelong learning participation to help reach the EU average.
Lifelong learning
One of the key targets set out by the Action Plan for Education (September 2016) includes an ambition to increase Ireland’s lifelong learning participation rate to 10% by 2020 and to 15% by 2025.
There are a number of initiatives in place already which will assist in increasing our Lifelong Learning rate:
- Launched in 2017, one of the main aims of the Skills for Growth Initiative is to allow for enhanced engagement between enterprise and education to enabling upskilling of existing staff in order to address identified skills needs.
- The eligibility criteria for Springboard+ was expanded in 2017 to include: people that have been out of the work environment for a number of years due to childcare or other caring obligations and have a previous history of employment but may require upskilling, reskilling or cross-skilling to transition back to the workforce; those in employment who wish to upskill or reskill to meet a specific emerging skills need in the Biopharma/Med Tech sector and those in employment, or self-employment in the ICT sector who wish to upskill from a level 7 to a level 8 qualification.
- The recent call for proposals for courses under Springboard+ 2018 provides for the extension of eligibility to all those in employment. This extension of eligibility provides further opportunities for lifelong learning for people both in employment and the economically inactive.
The National Skills Council is currently examining the issue of Lifelong Learning. The Council provides a forum for continued liaison with key stakeholders to implement next steps and innovative approaches to overcoming the key barriers to participation in lifelong learning.
