Professor Frank O'Mara:

I am thankful for the invitation to speak to this committee on Teagasc's role in education and upskilling in the agriculture sector. I will begin with an overview.

The 1998 Act establishing Teagasc provides a statutory mandate for Teagasc to provide or procure the provision of agricultural education and training. Teagasc is the primary provider of accredited further or vocational education and training for the agricultural sector. It also has a substantial role in supporting undergraduate higher education delivery for the land sector. Total annual participation levels for Teagasc further education and Teagasc-linked higher education programmes have ranged from 5,000 to 6,000 in recent years.

Teagasc also offers Quality and Qualifications Ireland-accredited and non-accredited short-duration courses on specific topics subject to demand. The Teagasc ConnectEd platform provides short-duration training opportunities for rural professionals and the wider agrifood sector.

Teagasc assigns a significant amount of resources to the education programme. Approximately 169 staff are assigned to it, and the budget cost for 2023 is €18 million. Regarding the staff cohort, Teagasc is dependent on the ability to recruit temporary contract staff to deal with the fluctuations that can arise in the demand for course enrolment places, particularly in part-time and distance education delivery.

Teagasc has a long-established education forum that acts as a consultative body for its education stakeholders. Farm organisations, such as, Macra na Feirme, the Irish Farmers' Association, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association, the Irish Countrywomen's Association, and learners, student placement hosts, universities, technological universities, private agricultural colleges, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Quality and Qualifications Ireland are all represented on the forum. It provides feedback and guidance to Teagasc concerning the education and training needs of future land sector entrants, the development and enhancement of Teagasc education programmes and the overall effectiveness of Teagasc education delivery.

The report Teagasc Education Vision was published in 2018 following a major consultation exercise with stakeholders. The vision underpins the Teagasc statement of strategy in regard to the organisation's education goals. The vision report underscored, in particular, the need for young trained farmer education qualifications to reflect future capability needs of the farming sector, the development of alternative pathways, such as land apprenticeships, the provision of coherent lifelong learning and professional development opportunities for farmers and the need for innovative approaches to delivery and learner engagement.

Let me address key roles in Teagasc's education and training. Our role in education and training can be classified into six areas. I will not list them but refer to them as I come to them.

The first is further education delivery. Teagasc provides further education programmes at levels 5 and 6 of the National Framework of Qualifications. Quality and Qualifications Ireland is the awarding body for these programmes. Graduates of Teagasc level 6 advanced certificate programmes and the level 6 specific purpose certificate in farming programme meet the "young trained farmer" educational requirement, often known as the green cert requirement, for schemes and measures directed at young farmers. Apart from offering agriculture programmes, Teagasc offers horticulture programmes at levels 5 and 6 in the College of Amenity Horticulture, National Botanic Gardens, and Kildalton College. There are equine programmes at Kildalton and Gurteen colleges and a forestry programme at Ballyhaise College. However, in excess of 90% of further education delivery is directed towards agriculture programmes at levels 5 and 6.

The level 5 and 6 agricultural programmes are delivered through the following options: full-time delivered via seven colleges, including three private colleges; part-time, which are delivered by colleges and across our 12 advisory regions, that is, our advisory offices, and distance, which is delivered by colleges and across our 12 advisory regions. Our full-time level 5 and level 6 courses are, in the main, directed at school leavers. In recent years, annual enrolments have been stable in the region of 1,000, which has matched the demand arising. Part-time and distance education green cert programmes cater for those who did not pursue full-time agricultural education routes on leaving school but who subsequently wish to attain a green cert education. Courses are delivered on a national basis at up to 30 locations subject to demand. In the years prior to 2014, overall annual enrolments for these programmes were typically around 400 to 500. Demand rapidly increased from 2014 onwards with exceptional enrolment spikes occurring in the period 2015 to 2017. Annual enrolments continue to be very robust for part-time and distance green cert courses and have been in the range of between 1,100 and 1,300 over recent years. Since that spike in 2014, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has sanctioned Teagasc recruitment of temporary contract education posts of two years, which has been important to facilitate the levels of enrolments I have indicated.

Teagasc’s second main route of delivery is through its links to higher education. Teagasc has a long-standing involvement with higher education institutions, HEIs, with the first linkage arising over 40 years ago with what is now South East Technological University, SETU. We have collaborative arrangements primarily with Munster Technological University; South East Technological University; Dundalk Institute of Technology; Atlantic Technological University; and Technological University of the Shannon. Students enrolled in undergraduate land-sector programmes of the above HEIs attend a partner Teagasc college for delivery of the farm management, farm husbandry and sustainable farming aspects of their programmes. Annual enrolments to Teagasc-linked higher education programmes stood at around 300 in 2010 but have typically exceeded 500 over recent years. Graduates of these Teagasc-linked education programmes are deemed to meet the educational qualifications pertaining to schemes and measures for young farmers.

The third route is collaboration with the universities on undergraduate degree programmes. Teagasc also has collaborative delivery arrangements on two level 8 degree programmes with University College Dublin, to which our colleagues have referred already, and with University College Cork. A significant portion of both programmes is delivered by Teagasc at Moorepark, Kildalton and Clonakilty.

The fourth route is apprenticeships. National education policy advocates the expansion of apprenticeship enrolments and creation of new apprenticeship pathways. The Teagasc education vision recommended the development of land sector apprenticeship pathways. Teagasc, on behalf of the land sector, proposed five apprenticeships: two in horticulture at level 6; two in farming with one at level 6 and one at level 7, and one in equine at level 7. The level 6 horticulture apprenticeship welcomed ten new apprentices last month while the level 6 and level 7 agriculture will welcome their first apprentices over the coming weeks.

The fifth channel is the Teagasc Walsh scholarship programme. This is Teagasc's postgraduate development programme. It primarily includes students pursuing research PhD programmes and includes a cohort of students pursuing both research and taught programmes for masters degrees. The numbers of enrolled students has been between 250 and 300 in recent years. In recent years, Teagasc has linked with Irish Aid and the Department of Foreign Affairs to provide a number of scholarships for students in developing countries. The objective of the Walsh scholarship programme is to support the training and professional development of scholars in association with Irish and international universities. UCD is the university with which we have the highest number of scholars. Walsh scholars undertaking research PhDs or masters are mainly located at the Teagasc research centres, or advisory offices in the case of specific masters programmes related to agricultural extension and innovation. The graduates of these programmes go on to find employment in a wide variety of organisations in both the public and private sectors that are connected to Ireland’s agriculture and food industry.

The last channel is education for rural professionals, which we deliver through ConnectEd. Professionals working within the agrifood sector have a significant role to play in influencing and supporting best practice at farm and food business level. In recognition of this, in 2015 Teagasc established the ConnectEd programme, which is designed to provide training, knowledge supports and networking opportunities to professionals working with farmers and food producers. To date, the programme has delivered over 6,500 training places to professionals working across the agrifood sector in Ireland including the financial services sector, input suppliers, agricultural consultants, agricultural contractors, food industry and other State agencies.