Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 May 2017
164. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which he expects the education system at all levels to be in a position to meet the skills demand in the workplace; the extent to which apprenticeships are likely to impact on the situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25012/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe education and training system at all levels has a number of strategies in place to ensure we meet existing and future skills demands in the workplace. Among those strategies are the National Skills Strategy 2025 and the Action Plan for Education 2016-2019.
The Action Plan for Education 2016 – 2019 provides a key statement on the reform agenda across the education and training system. The Plan contains a range of actions to be implemented with particular focus on disadvantage, skills needs, and continuous improvement within the education service.
The National Skills Strategy 2025 has over 120 Actions involving over 50 stakeholders, the purpose of the Strategy is to provide a framework for skills development that will help drive Ireland’s growth both economically and societally over the next decade. Included in the actions in the Strategy is the creation of a new National Skills Council. The Council had its first meeting on the 15th May. The Council will oversee research and advise on prioritisation and delivery of identified skills needs. Skills information from the EGFSN, the SLMRU and the Regional Skills Fora will feed into the work of the Council.
Within the Further Education and Training (FET) sector, significant improvements have been made in the planning and funding of provision since the publication of the FET Strategy in 2014. Education and Training Boards engage in a service planning process annually against a range of detailed parameters set by SOLAS. This process has been refined and improved each year and includes the use of strengthened labour market data provided by the SLMRU to ensure that the skill needs of learners and enterprise are met.
In the Higher Education Sector, the primary objective of Springboard+ in 2017 is to provide upskilling and reskilling courses to develop the talent base in Ireland in key growth sectors of the economy, including ICT; hospitality; biopharma, medical device technologies and manufacturing; financial services; and entrepreneurship. This year the eligibility criteria has been expanded to include homemakers and those in employment who wish to upskill or reskill in specific high demand skills areas, that is, Biopharma/Med-tech.
The Action plan to expand apprenticeship and traineeship in Ireland 2016-2020 now sets out a clear pathway for developing new apprenticeships as well as targets for the development of new programmes. The Plan committed to a new call for proposals in 2017 to refresh the pipeline already established through the 2015 call, this second call for proposals was issued on 8 May. The Apprenticeship Council has prepared a handbook “Developing a National Apprenticeship” to accompany this second call. The plan also commits to examining the potential for public sector engagement with the apprenticeship system. The Insurance Practitioner Apprenticeship, the first of the new programmes developed through the Apprenticeship Council’s first call for proposals, launched in September 2016 and an Industrial Engineer Apprenticeship commenced in November 2016. 13 further new apprenticeships are due to launch later this year in various sectors including medical devices, polymer processing and financial services.
