Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 17 December 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Dundalk Institute of Technology and SOLAS: Chairpersons Designate

Mr. Sean Aylward:

I am deeply honoured to have been offered the opportunity to serve as chairperson of SOLAS. I thank the committee for inviting me to set out my vision for SOLAS and further education and training in Ireland over the next five years. In short, my reason for appearing before the committee is my lifelong belief in the importance of realising everyone's human potential, that is, the capacity to achieve, inherent in every individual, irrespective of his or her initial life circumstances. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to build our lives and careers in this country know well the value of solid pathways to advancement. Building and maintaining those supportive, vocational pathways is the central mission of SOLAS. It is early days, especially in my case, but I have been impressed by how the new SOLAS chief executive and his executive colleagues have embraced the mission. My board colleagues, whom I met for the first time a few weeks ago, are also fully supportive of the strategic direction being adopted by the CEO and his team. I do not come before the committee with ready answers to all the challenges SOLAS faces. It is clear that fundamental issues have to be addressed. As chairperson, I will work with my board colleagues and the staff of SOLAS to ensure that the highest standards of governance will be maintained in achieving our objectives.

This is a pivotal time for further education and training, FET, in Ireland, as the committee members will probably know better than anyone. SOLAS and the education and training boards, ETBs, were established and reconstituted, respectively, in 2013 and the concept of an integrated FET system was set out at that juncture. SOLAS initially focused on setting up a good establishment and developmental approach. The immediate priorities in 2013 were setting up the organisation, getting the structures and relationships right, and embedding the systems and processes to support planning and funding in the field and the gathering of learner data. In turn, the first stab at a further education and training strategy 2014-19 was developed as what was intended to be an all-encompassing plan. It set out many complex and multiple stakeholder arrangements, five goals and 52 detailed actions. It was an ambitious and challenging agenda.

The year 2016 saw the launch of an action plan for apprenticeships and traineeships, as well as the agreement of national FET system targets with the Minister for Education and Skills. It also involved the establishment of strategic performance agreements between SOLAS and the 16 ETBs. This was perhaps the breakthrough moment for SOLAS. It was the juncture at which a sense of the future direction in which the FET system needed to evolve began to emerge. The significant progress made over the lifetime of the 2014-19 strategy has put a really strong foundation in place for SOLAS to lead the system into an exciting and perhaps challenging new era, working closely in partnership with the ETBs and the other FET providers to deliver integration, reform and performance improvement. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the partnerships that SOLAS has forged and will forge in the future. It is part of SOLAS’s statutory responsibility to propose an FET strategy to the Minister every five years. The work to prepare the second strategy for the period 2020 to 2024 has produced an exciting draft and transformational vision for the next, critical phase of FET development. Its adoption is not far away, given that 2020 is rapidly approaching.

I was delighted to be put forward to chair the SOLAS board as the new strategy neared completion. It is an exciting time for SOLAS and the wider sector. I am impressed at the level of stakeholder buy-in to the ambitious vision for the future in this vital area of education and training. The new strategy will be based on a structure that goes to the core of FET, a sector that embodies and embraces diversity. Our learners in the sector come from all walks of life, are aged from 18 to 70 years and above, and span the globe in their places of origin. In 2019, there were learners in our system in various parts of the country from more than 180 countries, all of them taking part in FET courses.

Fundamentally, FET revolves around skills development, learning pathways and inclusion, and the system’s future strategic priorities have been framed around those pillars. Nevertheless, there is a parallel focus by SOLAS on the main factors that should enable this, namely, staffing and structures, digital transformation, a performance and learner-centred approach, and investment in capital infrastructure. This will mean that over the next five years, the FET sector will be focused on simplifying the delivery landscape for its services for participants through: the development of an integrated FET college of the future, which will break down the existing divide between further education colleges and training centres; ensuring that communities can more clearly identify with their local FET facility, its diverse array of learning opportunities and wider afield; and a focus on the establishment of much clearer learning pathways, including developing potential links with second level and a more consistent transition approach to higher education, alongside a more modular and technology-driven approach to learning delivery, which will facilitate continual engagement with FET throughout the lifetimes and careers of the individuals who take part. There will also be a future need in the sector to create more space for flagship developments, which will help to change hearts and mind about the potential of FET for the development of their lives and careers.

On current staffing and structures throughout the country, there are concerns at SOLAS level about the need to break down rigidities in respect of HR, learner support and operational regulations, to facilitate cross-FET service delivery. Some of our structures may be somewhat traditional and rigid in the sector, and while this has to be explored delicately, I am sure that progress can be achieved with goodwill and full consultation with all the interests involved.

On systems and technology, we all need to acknowledge that the way we in Ireland work, learn, do business and interact with one another is fundamentally and rapidly changed, and that it has changed. It is clear that we, too, have to change the way learning is delivered and how data drive service delivery, and we need to develop shared financial and other systems to support more robust and efficient management approaches.

Despite the challenges faced by the sector, I am assured that the tools are there within SOLAS to change fundamentally the way that FET is viewed and valued in Ireland, in order that more and more people will recognise that FET can change their lives, allow them to develop themselves personally, engage with their communities and go as far as they want in life. It can also help people to re-engage with education and take the first steps in returning to work. When briefing myself for the role, I was impressed when I stumbled across a course for professional lorry drivers that has been developed in consultation with, and to a degree driven by, the industry in the Waterford-Wexford region. At that ETB, a group successfully completed a 29-week course, delivered at four locations. I was struck that the participants had an average age of 37 years, they were all unemployed at the time they signed up, and the vast majority of them completed the course and are successfully employed. It is a success story that illustrates all the points I made earlier about re-engaging, and the opportunity and pathway to future success the sector can deliver.

Another advantage of the FET sector is its flexibility. It is not tied to a rigid four-year academic experience. While many of us will have revelled in that experience, it is not for everybody. There are other options, and the time has come to champion and shine a spotlight on them. Given the committee's interest in apprenticeships, it is important to state that the direct routes that FET offers into solid careers are invaluable.

What is truly unique about further education and training in this State is that it offers an opportunity to engage in learning in every community in Ireland, regardless of any previous levels of education. It puts in place a pathway to progress as far as any individual wants to go. The impact of further education and training is already transformative. However, I believe that with the strong direction set out in the new SOLAS strategy, which will shortly come before the committee, this sector can grow its profile and make a crucial contribution to the next critical phase of Ireland’s social and economic development.

There are many other things I would like to say but I feel the hour is moving on so I will stop there. My further thoughts are set out in the written remarks I submitted in advance. I thank members for their attention.