Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 November 2023

Public Accounts Committee

Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 45 - Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
Financial Statements 2022: National Training Fund
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 19: National Training Fund

9:30 am

Mr. William Beausang:

The Deputy may be right. I had four weeks in my mind. It is that kind of timeframe. The OECD did a deep dive into this issue in a work that was published last May. It highlighted the issue as one of the priorities we need to focus on, going forward, for the very reason that everyone is going to need it. There is clearly an appetite for lifelong training, which is borne out by survey evidence. The question is whether there is provision that suits people's lifestyles. People still go off and do two-year master's courses part time, and I have great admiration for them. However, for the scale of reskilling and upskilling that is required, we need short, focused and flexible courses that can align with people's lives.

Then we are into very real-world issues about time off, childcare and transport costs so just to get to-----