Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2020
107. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans to extend third level and apprenticeship opportunities for persons with intellectual disabilities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43151/20]
View answerFostering Inclusion is one of the three core pillars around which the Further Education and Training Strategy (FET) 2020-2024 is built. The FET sector is committed to increasing levels of inclusion through the provision of high quality, more accessible and flexible education and training programmes and supports suited to the identified needs of individuals, including those with a disability. FET programmes are available to all learners, including those with a disability, who meet the eligibility criteria and the guidelines provided for each FET programme. Specialist Training Provision (STP) is also available for learners with more complex support needs, and this provision addresses the identified training needs of people with disabilities who are experiencing exclusion and labour market disadvantage in the form of vocational training programmes.
SOLAS, the national Further Education and Training authority is currently overseeing an independent evaluation of SPT. The purpose of the evaluation is to examine the quality, effectiveness, on-going relevance and overall value of vocational training that is currently delivered by specialist training providers, and to propose any recommendations for future practice.
Community Education assists learners with a disability to participate in FET provision by adapting course content, resources and teaching methodologies to suit their abilities. FET providers are required to offer reasonable accommodation to learners with disabilities, the nature of these accommodations varies depending on the identified needs of individual learners. FET provision is available across the country in every county. Most of these programmes are either free of charge or heavily subsidized.
Details of FET courses are available at www.fetchcourses.ie, or through the Adult Education Guidance Service in the learner’s local ETB. This service is free of charge and open to anyone over the age of 18, and they will be able to advise of all education and training options, as well as additional supports that are available to learners, including for learners with a disability.
In relation to apprentices, information is sought at the point of registration on any additional supports that may be needed due to disability including those with an intellectual disability. Education and training providers offer learning and other supports to apprentices during their training and many employers also provide accommodations in the workplace to apprentices with disabilities. In accordance with the Programme for Government, a new Action Plan for Apprenticeship is in development to cover the period 2021-2025 with a target of 10,000 apprenticeship registrations per annum by 2025. The plan will also set out how the apprentice population more closely reflect the general population and offer targeted supports for under-represented groups, including those with disabilities. Stakeholder submissions and a review of the current position of the Pathways findings and recommendations will be used to inform the new action plan which is due to be finalised by year end.
I am also aware of particular initiatives to give people with intellectual disabilities an opportunity to engage with higher education institutions. These have tended to be smaller in scale than the system-level provision delivered in the further education and training (FET) sector, but I am interested in seeing what we can do to build on these existing initiatives. This will include developing a better understanding of what works best within the different models, how we can support different providers in working together and learning from each other, across both the further and higher education system, and examining what is scalable from institutional-level approaches. There are other important policy and access questions, for example is it better from an access perspective for provision to be provided locally in a further education and training setting or in higher education settings where access may be problematic for some students living further away from the institutions? In this context, I will be looking over the coming year to see what more can be done in this area and I have asked my officials to bring forward proposals to me in this regard.
