Mr. Philip Sheridan:

I thank the committee for inviting City & Guilds to make a presentation. We very much welcome the opportunity offer our views. I am Philip Sheridan, commercial manager for City & Guilds in Ireland, and with me is Ms Jennifer Warner, executive manager of our marketing department.

City & Guilds is a leading global awarding organisation for competency-based, industry-relevant and internationally recognised qualifications. We currently offer over 500 qualification portfolios, ranging from levels 1 to 9 on the Irish national framework. Our qualifications are developed in partnership with industry experts and span over 28 sectors. City & Guilds has a long tradition in Ireland and its first formal engagement here was with the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in 1901.

Our mission is to enable individuals to develop the work-based skills and competencies that will enhance their employability opportunities. We pioneer the most up-to-date delivery and assessment methods and seek to improve vocational education through forging partnerships that deliver the skills and training required to develop the kind of workforce that is needed in the current environment of economic difficulty. City & Guilds is a registered charity and, therefore, any surpluses are reinvested in order to develop the qualifications and resources required in a rapidly changing workplaces. We have over 150 approved centres in Ireland - supported by a dedicated team in Dublin - and each year over 15,000 Irish learners are awarded City & Guilds certification. In 2011, the Ireland office took full responsibility for City & Guilds' European operations. In operating globally, we respect and fully support national systems. Since 2008, over 2,000 thousand qualifications were formally aligned with the national framework of qualifications. This alignment provides formal national recognition so that each City & Guilds qualification fits into the national framework and provides a clear progression route for our learners.

Community education and vocational education have an important role to play and immense potential to provide support in respect of the persisting challenges we face in our economy. There is a growing interest in vocational education and training around the world as a means to smooth over the education-to-work transitions which all economies must confront. Ireland faces many challenges and I would like to share with the committee some research findings and recommendations that are based on City & Guilds' review paper on the Irish apprenticeship system and also our findings on young people's vocational choices in Ireland.

A survey conducted by the European Commission in 2011 found that three quarters of people in Ireland thought vocational education has a positive image in the country. However, only 10% said they would recommend vocational education to a person who is finishing compulsory schooling. This prompted City & Guilds to investigate these perceptions further and, as a result, it commissioned a survey of 508 young people between the ages of 15 and 19. Our findings raise concerns about the perceptions and understanding of vocational education among young people in Ireland. The popularity of university and the influence of parents suggest that young people are encouraged to aspire to attending university, with only limited information about other options being available, including studying alongside working. Our research also suggests that it is common for young people to lack awareness and understanding of vocational education. Fewer than half of those surveyed correctly described what constitutes vocational education. The survey also shows that most aspire to take an academic route. Only 6% of those surveyed were planning to pursue a vocational qualification when their current courses were complete. Of those planning to pursue an academic qualification, more than half had never even considered a vocational option.

We would like to offer some recommendations to the committee on the basis of young people's responses to our research study. We are of the view that: more information should be available to young people in school to help them judge whether vocational education can support their career choices; information, advice and guidance should be offered in school at an earlier age, ideally at 13; information, advice and guidance should provide young people with real-life examples of individuals in a wide range of careers and trades; and, in view of the fact that young people seek information, advice and guidance through school and college websites, online material should be as accessible as possible.

In Europe, vocational and general education form part of the package and apprenticeship is treated as part of vocational education, usually at upper secondary level. Researchers from other branches of social science have identified models of apprenticeship that embrace formal and informal learning within structured on and off-the-job training provided by employers. Industry experts suggest that companies require that employees: have the ability to learn new skills and adapt to changing circumstances; can conceptualise the contribution of their role to organisational effectiveness; can work in flatter structures and without supervision; can manage the interface between customers and the organisation; and possess capabilities such as problem-solving, creative thinking and innovativeness. All these requirements put considerable responsibility on the education system and government organisations to ensure that people are equipped to meet these demands.

Our review of the current apprenticeship model in Ireland clearly shows that it forms a very strong basis for the future development of vocational education in Ireland. The current model is much more likely to remain appropriate if it is developed in line with a number of the following recommendations: build on the strengths of the model; extend apprenticeship to new sectors; vary the duration of training in line with skill levels; enhance governance and quality assurance; improve curriculum development and assessment; enhance the profile and attractiveness of vocational education and training, VET; set up a dedicated VET data collection body to inform policy makers; and establish a new mechanism to balance trainee numbers with demand. City & Guilds remains committed to supporting the development of the apprentice system in Ireland and to working with policy makers and stakeholders in the near future.

In this short presentation we have only scratched the surface of the relevant topics. We have made all the necessary and detailed information available to the committee through the secretariat. We fully support the committee and the key stakeholders in delivering a world-class vocational educational model which will meet the needs of the learner and the employer and which will ensure that learners have access to lifelong learning. The importance of the role of community education and vocational education to economic growth cannot be overstated. In the longer term, Ireland needs a more managed approach to the structural changes taking place in the labour market. Ireland would benefit from a self-sustaining skills ecosystem that puts plans and programmes in place to address skills gaps. Doing so will require overcoming some significant hurdles such as those relating to the value of vocational education, its attractiveness, lack of information relating to vocational educational skills needs and limited collaboration between key stakeholders.