Further Education and Training


EdTrain

In late April the INOU ran three Regional Discussion Fora and one of the issues explored was further education and training. Amongst the policies highlighted in the Fora were:

  • The Further Education and Training Strategy 2020-2024
  • The Adult Literacy For Life: A 10–year Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy, published July 2021
  • The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021–2025
  • The OECD Skills Strategy Ireland, working over a fifteen month period to Quarter 1 2023

The Further Education and Training Strategy is halfway through its time frame and within its vision it notes “FET will provide pathways for everyone. It will empower learners to participate fully in society and to become active citizens, and drive vibrant and diverse communities.” (p36)

Fostering Inclusion is amongst its strategic priorities and on page forty-seven of the FETS it states “ There are many cohorts with diverse needs, such as people with disabilities, new migrants, Travellers, the long-term unemployed, ex-offenders and women returners. All these require focused types of support to address their particular circumstances and needs. For such groups, the FET system should adopt a more targeted approach to addressing barriers around participation, completion and progression for marginalised and prioritised cohorts. ETBs should work in partnership with community and voluntary organisations who can represent or reach out to particular groups and facilitate a pathway to re-engage with education through FET.”

When the Central Statistics Office publishes the monthly Live Register figures, they also publish the numbers of people participating on activation programmes, the largest of which is Community Employment. The most recent data is available for March, 2022. The table below looks at the education and training figures for March over the past four years - covering pre, during and emergence out of the COVID-19 health pandemic. Over this four year time period the numbers of people participating on these education and training programmes declined by 33%. At the same time the numbers of people on activation programmes decline by 23% and the Live Register by 7%

Education and training programmeParticipants March 2019Participants March 2020Participants March 2021Participants March 2022
SOLAS full-time training for unemployed people5,6415,0275,0954,774
Back to education courses - vocational training opportunities scheme (VTOS)2,9472,7042,1521,606
Back to education courses - back to education allowance (BTEA)8,6336,8476,3375,193
Total back to education and training17,22114,57813,58411,573
Percentage of Activation Programmes34%32%34%29%

In the Minister’s foreword to A Strategy for ALL - Adult Literacy for Life , Simon Harris TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science says

Literacy is a form of power.

It offers a person the opportunity to carve out a place for themselves in the world.

The ability to read and write, work with numbers and navigate the digital sphere can unleash an individual’s potential. (p4)

Later on in ALL it notes “ The Economic and Social Research Institute (ERSI) research report on literacy, numeracy and activation among the unemployed shows that work-specific training in literacy and numeracy enhances employment prospects by up to three times the average.” (p30)

The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021–2025 contains five objectives including objective three which focuses on Apprenticeships for All seeking to ensure that “ The profile of the apprenticeship population will more closely reflect the profile of the general population” . There are thirteen key deliverables and number seven seeks to “ include the voice of underrepresented cohorts in apprenticeship” .

As part of the OECD Skills Strategy Ireland , the project will examine how responsive further education and training and higher education are to existing and emerging labour market needs. It will report on how best to promote a culture of lifelong learning, and an acknowledgement of  how skills can drive innovation.

The INOU is concerned that too often lifelong learning and innovation are seen as key elements of the more skilled end of the labour, that employees and potential employees are expected and supported to maintain and develop their skills. At the other end of the labour market, it can be hard for people to get the appropriate support to engage in lifelong learning, making the journey to a decent, more sustainable job much harder.

As part of their work, the OECD are asking people to engage in online surveys, the first of which is available at end ofof this government press release ( linked here ). It would be important that they hear from as broad cross section of Irish society as possible. There is an assumption that when people talk about employers they are talking about employers in the private for profit sector. Yet the community and voluntary sector are a key employer - in particular for people who face exclusion and discrimination in the labour market.