Dr. Patrick Prendergast:

The point is well made. I will not speak about the connection between primary and secondary education. I do not know too much about that but we need to think more about how secondary to university works. At present, it is almost entirely mediated by the CAO, which is a competitive points system.

The major issue that needs some work is the connection between further education and higher education. That is why this Government did something innovative, dare I say, in creating the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and connecting those areas up, at least at departmental level. I can only assume it is getting people to think about how further education and higher education link up. There should be pathways between the two. We should not just end up with someone saying, "Here is higher education, here is further education and if I go the further education route I can't go this way and, likewise, if I go the higher education route I can't get into further education". There have to be pathways between the two. That is something the TUs are ideally placed to provide.