Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022
135. Deputy James O'Connor asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the status of the implementation of the Future FET: Transforming Learning 2020-2024 strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6377/22]
View answerThe National FET Strategy Future FET, Transforming Learning 2020-2024 launched in July 2020 concentrates on the three core pillars of building skills, fostering inclusion, and facilitating pathways to deliver a more strategic and integrated FET system.
Significant progress has been made to date across the three pillars. With regard to Building Skills, the range of upskilling and reskilling opportunities have been broadened through Skills to Advance, focussed on upskilling for those in employment, and Skills to Compete, a key SOLAS initiative to support those who have lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19 to re-enter the workforce. eCollege has also been expanded and eCollege courses have been temporarily made available free of charge as additional supports to those impacted by Covid-19. Since 2020 there has been over 11,500 learners availing of Skills to Advance and over 13,000 learners have availed of Skills to Compete. Very significantly, the new Action Plan for Apprenticeships was launched last year with a target of 10,000 new apprentices registering every year by 2025. The Apprenticeship Incentivisation Scheme was extended to end December 2021 and there were over 8,600 new apprentices registered across the 62 national apprenticeship programmes currently operational.
In the area of fostering inclusion, there have been two significant developments, namely the development of the Framework for Universal Design for Learning in FET and the launch of the new 10 year adult literacy, numeracy and digital literacy strategy, Adult Literacy for Life. Both developments are significant and will help to enable every citizen to participate fully in society.
Turning to Creating Pathways, the enhancement of the CAO website for the 2022 CAO application process by the inclusion of links to information on, and applications for, FET programmes and to apprenticeship information and employment opportunities is significant in enhancing the visibility of FET and apprenticeship options for school leavers.
Progress has also been made in the enabling themes identified in the FET Strategy - staffing, structures and capabilities, learner performance centred, digital transformation and capital infrastructure. The FET strategy will underpin the development of new strategic performance agreements between SOLAS and each of the ETBs for the next three years, from 2022-2024 and the provision in Budget 2022 will support building the required capacity within the ETBs.
SOLAS has published a 2021 Progress Update on the Implementation of the FET strategy which is available on their website.
