Mr. Tony Donohoe:

It is something whose implementation the zero carbon group will need to build in because it is critical, and it probably does relate to those skills the Deputy identified.

Over the years, we have had much involvement with the NCCA and with businesses represented on the council. I chaired a reform group looking at a new junior certificate business studies curriculum, and it was a really interesting experience. It demonstrated to me, as someone who has made a living pontificating about the education system, the degree of hard and technical work that is required on the ground to develop something fit for purpose. The business studies curriculum had not been revised for 30 years and it still covered matters such as double-entry bookkeeping. That was a learning experience.

We are really hooked in to the NCCA. It is a really important organisation that does tremendous work on curriculum reform. The gap is in how the education system and teachers assimilate the council’s recommendations. There is always a tension in respect of teachers teaching to the test, as was noted, and the curriculum specifications tend to be very involved and prescriptive in that regard. In the context of some of the debates on curriculum reform now, the NCCA defines the learning outcomes and relies to a greater degree on the professional competence of teachers and their flexibility in how they deliver that, which suits teachers who have come from training institutions in recent years and would be well aware of the latest pedagogical techniques. In short, the NCCA is an organisation we are well aware of and work with, and I am a great admirer of it. Some of the more progressive thinkers in Irish education are under its roof.

We have not looked specifically at remote working hubs but reports on digitisation, in general, make passing reference to blended and remote working. There is much commentary on this at the moment because of the times we are in, but this will have to play out in regard to how we can maximise the use of technology and minimise some of the disadvantages. We have managed it through an emergency, but this will have to play out much longer such that we will be able to use these remote working hubs and have the skills, and management skills in particular, to manage workers in that context.

I will take the final points together. We have not looked at local training initiatives per sebut they are referenced in different reports. This speaks to the Deputy’s point about having different ways of learning. The classroom does not suit everyone. People have different ways of assimilating knowledge; some are more practical or theoretical, while some learn by doing or by being demonstrated to. An important area in the context of local training initiatives relates to pre-apprenticeship courses. I am quite familiar with one such course in the north inner city of Dublin run through Technological University Dublin, and there are others. It is a particularly interesting means of approaching this because it prepares people for something beyond.

I hope I have answered the Deputy's questions.