Dr. Emer Smyth:

I will address the remarks made about future-proofing. First, we need a sustainable model of funding for higher and further education. We have talked about some of those issues and the potential for a contribution from graduates.

Second, we need to make sure that students and staff are representative of Irish society in terms of gender, social background, ethnicity and disability status.

Third, we need to ensure that there is enough flexibility to respond to the needs of the labour market and as new skills are required. We also need flexibility in how we provide higher education. We saw a very swift pivot to online provision during the pandemic. There are a lot of mature students who would benefit from more access to distance learning and more flexible forms of learning because there has been a decline in the number of mature students over the last few years, which is concerning.

The female apprenticeship issue has been ongoing. The gendering of occupations is built in from very early on. We have done research on the take up of woodwork and metalwork at school level and found that it is very hard to break gender stereotyping but schools could do more to help. It is also hard to be the pioneer and the first or only girl in a class. It is key that we consider gender and social background in encouraging different groups of young people to go into apprenticeships. It is very hard to break the views by parents and young people that an apprenticeship is a second-best opportunity.