Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2020
46. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the estimated number of academic and apprentice graduates expected to be available for employment annually over the next five years; the degree to which these numbers can increase in line with demand; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43198/20]
View answerThis question seeks to ascertain the extent of the availability of both academic and technical graduates in sufficient numbers to meet the demands of the workplace in the years ahead.
The further and higher education sectors have a number of key strategies in place at all levels to ensure we meet existing and future skills demands. These include policies designed to ensure a pipeline of suitably qualified higher education graduates and apprentices - I am pleased that the Deputy mentioned apprentices - and initiatives to equip young people and the working population more generally with the skills and capacity to meet these demands.
The identification of skills priorities to help to inform and shape planning for graduate output is guided by the national skills strategy. The strategy provided for the establishment of the skills architecture that we have today, which is the National Skills Council and the nine regional skills forums. As I said to Deputy Griffin during a previous question, there is great benefit in talking to the regional skills forums, the industries in the area and the education partners to ascertain what is needed in the region in terms of future skills. Underpinning both the skills agenda and architecture are the skills forecasting and intelligence systems, made up of the contribution of a number of public bodies including, at present, the expert group on future skills needs in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the skills and labour market research unit in SOLAS and the statistical analysis and assessment carried out by the HEA. The detailed research and analyses carried out by these bodies feed into the work of the National Skills Council in defining the priorities and delivering responses in the area of skills needs.
My Department does not currently produce specific projections for the number of higher education graduates because a number of variables can impact graduate output in any year. However, it is interesting that the projections of enrolment at third level predict that full-time student enrolments will rise by approximately 13% over the next decade, and it is to be expected that graduate numbers will increase in a similar manner. The number of students graduating each year has increased from 66,500 in 2014 to 73,300 in 2018, an increase of 10% over that period.
In the programme for Government there is a commitment to a new action plan for apprenticeships. That is nearly ready to go to the Government and will be launched early in the new year. It will set out new ways of structuring, funding and promoting apprenticeships, with a target of 10,000 new apprenticeship registrations per year by 2025. This compares with a 2019 registration figure of 6,177. We are clearly increasing the scale of our ambition in this regard.
I thank the Minister for the comprehensive reply. To what extent is the Department in contact with IBEC and other employment providers in the community with a view to concentrating on the areas most likely to show deficiencies in available skills, given that in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic and Brexit there will be a requirement for increased investment in that area?
There will be and I am pleased, as the first Minister in this new Department, to have a significant increase in funding already. Outside of the higher education places, we will be training an additional 50,000 people in 2021 compared to this year. That is part of our response, and we have more ambition in that regard. We engage regularly with IBEC. Its representatives sit on a number of the bodies I mentioned. I have had a number of meetings with IBEC since taking office. I will give an example of how the link with industry produces a good idea. One of the ideas the Government came up with was providing a financial incentive for a business to take on a new apprentice, and I am very pleased that as a result of that cash incentive, which is €3,000 for a business that takes on an apprentice, the number of registered new apprentices has significantly increased. Some 77 apprentices were registered in April while 918 were registered in October and 840 were registered in November. There were more new apprentices registered in October and November this year than in October and November 2019. Working together is extremely important in that regard.
To what extent is contact maintained with the major employers with a view to identifying from them the precise skills they anticipate will be required in the future, both academically and technically? To what degree does the Minister believe that this can be provided for?
There is constant contact in the National Skills Council, which I attend regularly. It comprises key senior public officials and, crucially, industry leaders and representative bodies of industry working together. We cannot be complacent or rest on our laurels. Nobody owes us a living and the country must constantly be ready not just for the jobs of today but also those of the future. That has never been more pertinent than it will be in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, whenever that happens. The benefit I genuinely see, to be honest, is in the regional skills forums. Not every part of the country is the same. I had a meeting in the south west of the country with the regional skills forum and it spoke about the need for more engineering graduates. The benefit there is that the education providers, including the ETB and local colleges, as well as the employers are in the virtual room together and they can come up with the programmes that have to be provided. That will become even more apparent as we roll out the technological universities.
