Dr. Maria Kyne:

The Technological Higher Education Association, THEA, currently represents three of the five new technological universities and institutes of technology in Ireland. Our members have a long tradition of providing education to students and apprentices of STEM disciplines. The considerable growth of STEM programmes in the higher education institute of technology sector over the past 50 years has been in direct response to industry needs in order that we are graduating industry-ready students and apprentices. We work with relevant industry groups through shared partnerships such as Explore Engineering, professional bodies such as Engineers Ireland, teachers associations such as we had here earlier, regional skills forums and others to ensure graduates have the relevant knowledge, skills and competencies. In our experience, a shortage of STEM graduates has led industry and academia to collaborate more effectively and create new initiatives to attract second-level students into STEM careers, such as the Explore Engineering showcase.

The pace of change in technology has created and will continue to create a need for workforce upskilling and reskilling. The Government Springboard and human capital initiatives have had a positive impact here with targeted programme development as well as the work of the various regional skills forums. The pace of change in technology will continue to impact on our ability to deliver programmes and graduates with the appropriate skills to industry. Investment in higher education STEM facilities, equipment and technology is now more important and urgent than in the past, where more funding targeted at providing state-of-the-art technologies is needed. Government investment in the consortiums-led apprenticeships has delivered a significant increase in apprenticeships available to students, and the access to apprenticeship programme is providing a pathway for students from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas to enter apprenticeships. These are examples of where Government investment in STEM initiatives has yielded positive outcomes. The higher education apprenticeship providers are collaborating as a sector and are proactive in support of Government policy implementation, such as the recent publication on the response to the action plan for apprenticeships.

A gender focus to encourage more females into STEM careers has the potential to grow the graduate output in these disciplines significantly. International Women’s Day on 8 March recognised the growing inequalities in the access to technology, with women being left behind as a result of the digital gender divide. It was called the DigitALL. The Higher Education Authority, HEA, has provided statistics that indicate that the gender gap is more prominent in higher education engineering, manufacturing and construction programmes. Engineers Ireland stated that approximately 12% to 13% of engineering graduates in 2018 and 2019 were women. However, since 2016, the HEA has measured that female participation in higher education STEM programmes is steadily increasing, at a very slow pace, with greater female participation at masters and PhD level.

We are working with our industry partners and professional bodies to promote STEM careers to second level students, such as the Explore Engineering inspire event and others. Policy decisions to encourage more technology subjects at junior and senior cycle and investment in STEM facilities in second level schools would support the growth in students opting for STEM programmes in higher education.

Additional Government research supports would be welcome to focus on the entire STEM area to ensure Ireland is at the cutting edge of technology developments and continues to increase STEM job figures. From my own experience, I envisage that the technological universities and institutes-of-technology sector will continue to respond actively to Government policies on skills development, upskilling, reskilling, research and apprenticeships.