Mr. Tony Pettit:

I will begin and then hand over to my colleague, Dr. Stan Lalor. In terms of school links, that is very important. There is always room for improvement with regard to working with the schools. All our colleges have quite an involvement with schools through inviting people to the colleges each year. With Agri Aware we take in approximately 3,000 students annually in March for the walk and talk exercise. We also have open days on careers for transition year, fifth year and sixth year students. There is quite an amount of work on that. On the Teagasc public website we have resources that are available for second level schools. Some of my colleagues in the advisory regions are also looking at pilot projects to work with and visit schools to explain about Teagasc and to explain farming and food and where farming fits in the food chain. There is ongoing work on that, but it is a work in progress. I fully accept that we need to work more because these people are important for the future.

With regard to entry requirements, we have both higher education courses and further education courses. There is no educational requirement, as such, for our full-time further education courses in which one attends one of our agricultural colleges. It is an age-based requirement. One has to be 17 years of age on the January after one enters. It is similar for our part-time courses. It is adult education so it is more age based. We operate an accelerated programme and we have an entry requirement for that. However, that is an accelerated programme where people who already have another award can do the programme faster. In our higher education, there are entry Central Applications Office, CAO, points for Teagasc-linked higher education courses, but they are set by the higher education institutions.

As regards CAP, we are certainly looking at that. In 2018, Teagasc concluded the Teagasc education vision exercise.

At the forefront of that exercise were the requirements for the young farmers of the future. That consultation involved many stakeholders, including a couple of hundred farmers and a range of farming organisations and agencies. Sustainability was identified as the major area, and compliance and governance were also identified as being particularly important. In addition, smart farming, digital and the business area were also highlighted. Within this as well, however, technical areas would also remain important.

As the courses and curriculums are reviewed, we must work with the awarding body, which is Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI. These are not Teagasc awards anymore. Each time the award comes up for review, however, we examine the changing requirements. Sustainability and all these areas will have an increasingly strong focus within the awards. Modules exist in areas such as business, but also in technology and digital technology. We also have a farm planning programme at level 6 that takes students through the whole farm planning exercise for their business, not only if they want to stay in farming but also in case they might want to consider other options. The students are therefore appraising their future in respect of land resources and the options that may be available outside farming.

The education vision exercise also recommended that we focus more on the entrepreneurial aspect of how farmers use their resources for the future. We are bearing that aspect in mind. The other point which came through in the report was that we need to focus on improving the problem-solving skills of farmers in the next generation, because it is very much an industry centred on problem solving. What is required in that regard is not just imparting theory but also helping people to gain practical skills.

Turning to apprenticeships, this again is an area that came through in the education vision report and it is one we are keen to progress. In the last call for apprenticeship proposals, Teagasc submitted five land sector apprenticeship proposals on behalf of the industry. Two were in farming, one at level 6 to qualify as a farm technician and one at level 7 to gain an ordinary degree in farm management. We also submitted two proposals in the area of horticulture, one in applied horticulture and one in sports turf, as well as one in the area of equine studies. Those proposals are in the development stage and it is a long process to approval. We are working on the quality assurance frameworks for those five apprenticeships which we hope to submit to QQI this summer. Hopefully, the first of those apprenticeships will go to QQI for validation this autumn. Other bodies have audited these proposals as well, including SOLAS, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, and employers. The work is in progress and we hope those five apprenticeship schemes will all be launched and up and running by the end of 2022.

Turning to the graduate survey look back, we already carried out a look-back survey of graduates who qualified five years ago. The key findings from that survey are that the majority of people, based on their replies to the survey, are still involved in farming and have quickly got involved, in a matter of years, in the management aspect of their farms. Looking back over the survey replies, some 90% of the people who responded are involved at a management level in a farm, either through a partnership or as the manager within five years of qualifying from the course. We also find that more than 70% of respondents indicate they have increased their level of farming activity. We also look at the numbers who join farming discussion groups, such as profit monitor uptake and all those areas, and a significant number are implementing the practices we recommend.