Dr. Katriona O?Sullivan:

Yes. We as a society are not being very creative in thinking we need to fill certain professions now. Ireland is heralded as the country that develops intellect and is innovative. If we are moving to a situation where education is like a train track into specific professions, then we are limiting society's capability to develop those new jobs in art history or archaeology. There must be some reflection in that regard. It should not be so hard for somebody to want to improve his or her life. The reality is that education improves lives.

Reference was made to whether education is offered equally. The investment for activation is much smaller for education and training than it is for work programmes. This suggests that the lower investment means it is less important. I believe it is around one third and the rest is on work programmes or placements. If we then break down what percentage of that is within education and training, some of it is for the back to education allowance and some is specific to particular job types. The investment is lower, however, and therefore education is not being offered as much. I am not against work programmes if a person wants to do whatever job they want, but education should be equally heralded and offered. There is lower investment in education and training and individual institutions are tasked with the job to promote education as a path. When I was invited here today, I was quite nervous because I saw the topic of "work activation", and I thought about education activation and asked why it was not in the title of the topic for discussion. I have read up on it and education and skills is very low down. There needs to be some consideration of how it is being funded and who is tasked with promoting it. If a caseworker's job is to get a person in to employment, then there needs to be space for education to be equally as important.

The UK research on mature students was published in 2015 and I can forward it to the committee. It contains much quantitative and qualitative evidence to show that mature students are uplifted and perform better than younger adults in further education. They also have better outcomes financially. I include this information because if a person has already done a degree or has done some training at level 6, unless he or she is progressing onto the next level, that person is not eligible for back to education allowance or Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI. For example, friends of mine left school, did a further education course, because they did not push that way, and 20 years later they hate their job, they are stuck and they cannot get promoted. If they try to upskill or change their lives there is no support for them because they are limited in accessing supports such as the back to education allowance or SUSI supports. The rent allowance under the back to education allowance is also restricted. When I was in college I felt kind of rich. It is only now that I realise I was living way below the poverty line, although it was easier for me. I got my back to education lone parent allowance and I received a grant. I also got rent allowance. I thought I was on the pig's back. In comparison with where I am now, that is completely changed. A person can get either the back to education allowance or the SUSI grant. If a person gets the back to education allowance, he or she receives the initial payment of some €3,000 but not the SUSI grant, the regular payments or the €500 book grant. If the student is a parent, however, he or she does. There are so many hurdles to jump through if one wants to change, upskill or retrain, and these should be reflected upon.