Mr. Declan Doyle:

When I spoke about harnessing our teaching and research into economic objectives, I meant as a result of whatever jobs initiative or jobs plan for the south east is generated from this report and beyond. A certain level of engagement takes place across the region and across the higher education sector, but it is not formalised. The Vice Chairman said it was everybody's responsibility but unfortunately, it is a cliché that if something is everybody's responsibility, it becomes no one's responsibly. Perhaps one of the recommendations should be that a formal process be put in place to ensure this type of regional engagement happens.

One of the positive things that has aided enormously the development of the joint submission of the two institutes was the formation of a committee chaired by the city manager, Mr. Michael Walsh. Mr. Joe Crockett and all the county managers in the region were members of this committee, together with representatives from the enterprise development agencies. That was hugely positive in drawing together the different objectives of the stakeholders and in getting that type of programme going. One might think that was something very obvious. It is obvious but it never happened before.

The task force pulled together by the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, following the closure of TalkTalk was mentioned. One might say that was obvious but it had not happened before. I am part of that forum. It needs to be formalised in some way to try to ensure that the HEIs have a formal method of interacting with the other stakeholders, whether economic, community or local authority-based.

The mention of the technological university in the programme for Government was extremely welcome. As I said previously, the work towards stage two and, hopefully, on to stage four and redesignation as a technological university is one of the primary objectives of IT Carlow and the management team. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of mapping academic departments and how that is done, obviously there is overlap. The institutes of technology were set up in 1970 as regional technical colleges. They all had a school of business, a school of science and a school of engineering.

There are legacy issues there that will be a challenge for the institutes to get through in terms of how centres of excellence, research funding and research strategies are developed. That is a real challenge because it does not just involve academic and regional engagement issues but also human resources and industrial relations issues, with a whole plethora of different stakeholders who need to be brought on board. Ultimately, it will happen but it is some way down the road.

On the issue of the way in which we engage with industry, we have formal industry advisory boards for each of our programmes to try to ensure that we create what are termed "shovel-ready" graduates, that is, people who are ready to enter the work force on graduation. The Carlow Institute of Technology was extremely pleased to see the report produced by IBEC recently on graduate employability which showed that IT graduates scored higher than the universities on six out of ten of the criteria under which they were surveyed.

On the question of apprenticeships, we had an extremely successful project under the strategic innovation fund. The aforementioned fund is six to eight years old. There was a joint initiative between Carlow IT and Limerick IT which developed a progression and conversion route for apprentices. One course was called a BSc in Craft Management and it allowed apprentices to develop a new, management-based skill set. Other projects allowed apprentices to look at alternative ways of building on their apprenticeship qualification. One example of this was the aforementioned course in craft management. Another, in the engineering faculty, enabled electricians to transfer into electronic engineering. That reskilling and upskilling of apprentices who have been left unemployed as a result of the construction downturn is continuing. In that context and to return to something mentioned by Mr. Rooney, the recognition of prior, experiential learning is something we have worked hard on in Carlow IT. We have taken a number of students in recent years onto our business and ICT programmes. It is a little bit trickier to do this in some of our engineering programmes because we must ensure that students who come through the programme will achieve Engineering Ireland status or the equivalent status from a relevant professional body. In some cases, if one gives exemptions for prior learning, the final qualification is not always recognised by the professional body. That is something we are working on to see if we can overcome it. Up to two years ago, if Bill Gates applied for a software engineering course at Carlow IT, he would have to start in first year. That was the reality before we brought in recognition of prior learning, RPL, and we are continuing to develop our policies in that area.

Flexibility and diversity are key in terms of the conversion programmes, particularly in ICT, business and supply-chain management. Some of these programmes were funded through Springboard and we hope that will continue. I mention supply-chain management because we spoke earlier about agri-science and agri-research and one of the areas in which Carlow IT has developed expertise is in the area of supply-chain and agri-logistics. Graduates of that course are proving to be highly employable. We are working on a memorandum of understanding with Teagasc, Waterford IT and Carlow IT in agri-ICT and agri-business generally. That would include the concept of the agricultural assistant, although I had not heard that actual term before. Without being sexist, we are looking at developing a programme for farmers' sons who went into the construction industry and who are now returning to farming to try to develop their skills to enable them to have a viable future in the agri-industry.

The notion of the technological university and the questions on the Telecommunications Software and Systems Group, TSSG, are issues to which the representatives from Waterford IT should respond. However, aligned to the notion of the technological university is the notion of the entrepreneurial university, that is, one that is outward looking and engaged with industry and that is what we are striving to achieve. That is what is different about any technological university. It is not a "me too" university. It is about engagement and innovation in the way we deliver our programmes, like developing internships for adult learners, building more live projects into our work, ensuring greater linkage between our research capability and the needs of industry and so forth. We are trying to ensure that this approach is built into the fabric of what we do and not something that simply happens on an ad-hocbasis across departments. We want it to be at the core of what we do. We want to ensure that we are engaged within the region.

The word "university" is probably more important for American multinationals coming in. Some of the companies based in the Carlow area that have their headquarters in the US are very excited about telling HQ that there is a possibility of a technological university opening in the region. In that context, it is more than a word. The word is important but it is more than that. University status enhances our prospects of becoming involved in higher-level research and producing more fourth-level graduates.

On the question of employability, the average employment rate for graduates of Carlow IT in the last five years is 91%. It peaked at 96% and the lowest point was 87%. We have 100% employment rates in the ICT and biotechnology areas but the rates are lower in other areas. Students who entered college in 2007 and 2008 on construction-related courses are still struggling to find employment in Ireland, although they are finding employment overseas.

I hope I have answered all of the questions that were posed.