Mr. Paddy Howard:

The Department is delighted to be involved in these great deliberations. The Department recognises the importance of STEM to society and the economy, which is reflected across all the main areas of our interest. We have made our written submission and I hope it is of assistance to the committee’s deliberations. I want to take this opportunity to draw out some high-level points from our Department’s perspective.

Clearly, we are conscious of skills as the central lever for a well-functioning society and economy and the continued competitiveness of Ireland on the global stage. Education, skills and continuous learning are the most robust, transformative and lasting means to ensure Ireland’s best asset remains our people. A key priority for the Department is to ensure the skills ecosystem has the agility and flexibility to adapt to changing priorities in the skills and workforce development landscape.

When turning to the specific topic of STEM, we find it important to first place the matter in its context. As is widely acknowledged, society needs investment in a wide array of disciplines and skills. We typically draw attention to the need to highlight the transversal skills needed across all sectors, such as creativity, problem solving and people skills, in responding to things like the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation. Also, whether the topic is education or my own topic of research, it is widely acknowledged that the societal challenges being faced at present require multidisciplinary approaches. That is what forms our approach when we turn to the topic of STEM.

Other colleagues from our agencies have set out the good work being done at the moment in higher and further education. I know the committee has already spoken to Science Foundation Ireland in respect of research and innovation. With that in mind, I might briefly comment on the current position with respect to STEM and higher education. I will illustrate how we conceive of things.

As our colleague from the HEA has set out, I understand enrolments are around 30% for the past few years. However, when we factor in the overall increase in student numbers in that time, we find that the number of students enrolled in STEM has increased by about 14%. Through targeted upskilling and reskilling initiatives such as Springboard+, we have seen the mainstream supply of graduates supplemented. It provides free and subsidised upskilling and retraining in areas of need. The human capital initiative, which, again, colleagues have already mentioned, also forms a strategic response to the changing workplace, has a strong STEM element and is funded through the national training fund.

We are aware that just because a learner is not enrolled in a STEM course does not mean they cannot be exposed to new technologies or scientific ways of thinking.

Also, STEM students benefit from looking outside their fields of study to learn new thinking. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to continue lifelong learning, focusing that digital transversal skill, as we would see it, which is required in various ways through all stages of life and in all career paths.

On the issue of digital skills, dimension 3 of the national digital strategy sets out the importance of focusing our skills policy on getting digital skills at every level, including high-level digital skills, digital skills for the labour market and digital skills for society. This focus is vital in order for us to be an international leader in the digital economy. To that end, the Department has underpinned the national digital strategy by setting two overall targets. The first of these is to increase the number of learners who graduate with higher level digital skills to more than 12,400 graduates, apprentices and trainees. The second target is to increase the share of adults in Ireland with at least basic digital skills to 80%. As members can see in our written submission, achievement of these goals has been largely completed and the country continues to show significant progress in meeting the remaining elements.

We have also set out the actions and progress being made in respect of equality in our written submission and I know that other colleagues have elaborated on that. Questions of equality and access are very much on our minds in all that we do.

The Department will be developing a new science advisory structure. While located in our Department, this structure will offer a service to Government. In particular, it will work to improve delivery of cross-sectoral science advice which has the potential to illuminate pressing societal problems.