Mr. Colm Kelly:

There is one issue which was addressed in the earlier session which might be worth mentioning in this session and that is the guidance services. The Department of Education dismantled the National Centre for Guidance in Education in the past year with a view to changing its structure or introducing a new structure for guidance education. It remains to be seen, particularly in respect of vocational education and training, VET, guidance education, how that is going to be structured. That is again linked into the VET staffing structures within education training boards. How will the guidance provision be structured in such a way as to ensure there are suitable pathways that all guidance counsellors in secondary schools understand through further education and on into higher education?

Also, we have grades, such as the adult education guidance counsellors, which is a specific grade for further education students, to access and give them some direction in respect of their academic and career progress. It remains to be seen, as part of that organisation and design strategy, and indeed SOLAS’s VET strategy, how those guidance provisions will assist in ensuring the proper implementation of those strategies.