Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 October 2021
169. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the degree to which the higher level education sector is in discussion with business and enterprise with a view to matching requirements in the workplace with suitable graduates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50142/21]
View answerMy Department places a fundamental focus on working with the Higher, as well as Further, education sector, to ensure delivery of suitable graduates to match what business and enterprise needs and requirements in the workplace.
A core focus of the Department's Statement of Strategy is to enable individuals to access the skills required to progress in a way that meets the needs of our economy as it evolves and recovers.
Ireland has an advanced system of skills provision, across Further and Higher Education, lifelong learning and human capital development, which is agile and responsive to changes in the world of work. Central to this is a partnership approach – partnership between the Further and Higher Education system, Government and industry. Some of the mechanisms enabling this include the National Skills Council (NSC) , the Regional Skills Fora, the National Training Fund Advisory Group (NTFAG) and the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN).
The National Skills Council, launched in April 2017, is made up of representatives from public and private organisations, and is the high-level platform for interactive engagement between enterprise, education and training providers and government, seeking to advise on prioritisation of skills needs and challenges in an overarching way. The Council is currently chaired by Bob Savage, Vice President, Regional Chief Information Officer for EMEA and Cork Site Leader Dell Technologies.
The Regional Skills Fora, established in 2016 , bring people together at local and regional level, to identify, interrogate and validate skills needs, and to ensure that employers / enterprise are linked to the right places, to get responses needed, meaning matching of need with provision is taking place on an ongoing basis and in a manner which is highly tailored. The Fora provide hugely valuable bottom-up information and insights, to ensure that we have skills policies and approaches, at national level, which are evidence-informed and serving their purpose.
The National Training Fund Advisory Group brings together stakeholders from the enterprise sector, my Department, and bodies who have a strategic and oversight role in delivery of skills provision to optimise enterprise engagement in the in the work of the Fund to upskill and reskill those in employment and preparing for employment, and support lifelong learning.
The enterprise based research of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs helps inform the National Skills Council’s work in prioritising skills needs across the economy, and with it the allocation of resources across the education and training system. The EGFSN’s studies involve close and comprehensive consultation with the enterprise base, in order to identify both the nature and quantity of current and future skills needs across specific sectors and occupations. As part of the evidence base for policy making, the EGFSN’s work in turn helps maximise the alignment of education and training provision with enterprise skills needs.
Our skills policies continue to be developed taking into account so-called "mega-trends" in the labour market, the impact of automation and digitisation, the essential need for digital literacy and the core role of transversal skills in the labour market.
My Department will continue to collaborate closely with the Higher Education sector, business and enterprise, and indeed all key stakeholders, to evolve and improve in order to meet the changes and challenges of the future world of work, and to leverage the opportunities to shape the economy and society that individuals want and need.
