Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

On behalf of SOLAS, I thank the Chair and the committee members for the opportunity to discuss North-South student enrolment in tertiary education.

SOLAS has responsibility for further education and training, FET, in Ireland. Through the 16 education and training boards, ETBs, and other providers, the FET system offers access to a wide range of learning opportunities and supports in every community, regardless of background or formal education level, and a learning pathway to take people as far as they want to go. It currently serves a base of approximately 200,000 unique learners every year. SOLAS also serves as the co-ordinating provider for craft apprenticeships and works with the HEA to jointly manage the national apprenticeship office to oversee the national apprenticeship system.

Developing North-South student pathways is completely aligned with the national strategy for FET and apprenticeships. Our future FET strategy, Transforming Learning, sets out a clear roadmap for development which centres on building skills, fostering inclusion and creating pathways. Under the pathways pillar, we are committed to significantly expanding pathways within FET, and between FET and higher education. In this regard, North-South links will be a key priority. The strategy is being embedded at regional level via strategic performance agreements between SOLAS and the 16 ETBs, with many identifying specific commitments to grow links with Northern Ireland partners. The action plan for apprenticeship includes a commitment to examine the potential for an all-island approach to apprenticeship, particularly in niche skills areas, with cross-Border apprenticeship programmes to be developed to enhance Ireland’s ability to respond to skills needs as an all-island economy.

The extent to which learners and apprentices from Northern Ireland access FET and apprenticeship opportunities funded by SOLAS is limited. We currently have 96 craft apprentices and 250 to 300 FET learners. Factors constraining demand for this provision include the lack of consistent financial support to avail of FET courses like traineeships and post-leaving certificate, PLC, courses, a lack of understanding of the currency of the national framework of qualifications, NFQ, level 5 and level 6 awards available via these opportunities and the relative strength of the further education college system in Northern Ireland.

There are good examples of successful North-South partnerships between tertiary education providers, however. Louth and Meath ETB recently established the All-Ireland Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence, AMTCE, in Dundalk, which is already driving upskilling across North and South. The Northern Ireland partner to the AMTCE is the Portview Trade Centre in Belfast. They are also both part of a wider consortia seeking to build an all-island advanced manufacturing training and business network. This also includes three regional colleges. along with Manufacturing Engineering Growth Advancement, MEGA, in Dungannon and the Irish Manufacturing Research, IMR, centre in Mullingar. Louth and Meath ETB and Southern Regional College are also seeking to develop a new all-island apprenticeship in artificial intelligence, AI, and robotics.

We believe there is considerable potential to develop industry-linked specialist educational initiatives of this kind to drive North-South tertiary activity, which serve employers and the upskilling needs of their employees, as well as providing pathways into exciting careers for school leavers. In this regard Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim ETB is working with South West College and the Irish Cross-Border Area Network in Enniskillen as part of a skills development cluster initiative. Donegal ETB is part of a North West Tertiary Education Cluster, which Mr. McKenna mentioned earlier.

Recently SOLAS has worked with the HEA to support the co-development of programmes by FET and higher education partners, with 13 now in development in exciting areas like nursing, computer science and culinary arts. We are happy to support the exploration of developing similar FET-higher education pathway initiatives on a North-South basis. A number of FET graduates already go on to undertake degree programmes in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, particularly in high-demand areas like nursing and social care. Although it is more difficult to track these students when they leave this jurisdiction, we have mapped the transition pathways that exist, and there should be a very good foundation to further expand learning pathways on a North-South basis from the links already in place.

A proposal on a potential all-island apprenticeship for accounting technologists was recommended for development by the National Apprenticeship Alliance at a meeting last month, responding to a new occupational need identified by the professional body Accounting Technicians Ireland, ATI. It is positioned as a progression path for accounting technicians where advanced skills in the areas of IT and digital skills, analysis of data, governance and operations are developed. It is planned that the apprenticeship programme will be developed for implementation in both North and South, with the with Open University identified as potential co-ordinating provider for the former and Technological University of the Shannon, TUS, for the latter.

It is worth noting that SOLAS and the ETBs have joined the Four Nations Colleges Alliance as associate members. This is a network of further education providers across Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales which evolved from a commission formed to set out a vision for a college of the future. Much of this work aligned with our own development of a FET college of the future model within the transforming learning strategy, and the links developed via the alliance are already leading to active collaboration between the ETBs and the regional colleges in Northern Ireland.

In summary, there is significant potential to grow North-South enrolments into, and out of, FET despite quite limited numbers at present. Part of our challenge is increasing awareness of the many FET options, particularly at NFQ levels 5 and 6, which either take people directly into exciting careers or allow them to progress to a higher education degree. One of the recent initiatives to promote these opportunities has been a link to all available FET courses from the CAO website, including the ability to apply for any course within a few clicks. All the apprenticeship options are also there with a year-round apprenticeship helpline established to provide guidance. We will also consider how recognition of all the FET and apprenticeship pathways can be improved in Northern Ireland, building on the strong collaboration already evident between North-South partners.

I hope this provides a brief overview of the issues with regard to North-South tertiary education enrolment and the potential opportunities to grow this in a FET and apprenticeship context. I thank the committee members for their time today and look forward to further discussion on this matter.