Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for staying with us as I know it is a busy time for him. On some of the things the Minister mentioned, he spoke about pre-entry nursing and apprenticeships, and the importance of people, students and young people, knowing there are all of these different routes to getting the career they would like. In the years ahead, when one thinks about the future and how the world of work will change, how are we preparing our students now? Part of my question is around the different careers someone will have in his or her lifetime. We are preparing students to be resilient and everything else, hopefully in our secondary schools. At third level we are building resilience into our students. I know the Minister is doing an awful lot around mental health, well-being and so on. Ireland is excellent and nearly 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds go on to third level and further and higher education, which is among the highest in Europe. However, we do not rank so highly when it comes to lifelong learning. I really appreciated that the Minister highlighted that he has a real interest in part-time students and lone parents. He talked a little about online access and other innovative ways to reach those people. What I am trying to look at here is lifelong learning and how we try to see that people can have all of these routes to college and that they can do a course and have a career for ten years but can also change and come back in and maybe there is another opportunity to do that. I have one question on that and if I have another few minutes, I might ask one or two other questions, if I may. Is that okay?