Ms Cliodhna O'Neill:

The Department has a programme called Teaching Transforms, which is aimed at promoting the teaching profession generally to young people who might consider becoming teachers. One of the elements of the programme is to expand the diversity of the profession and to ensure the possibility of becoming a teacher is presented to young people who might not have previously considered it. As part of the programme, there is a national advertising campaign. There are also outreach elements to it and information is provided to guidance counsellors throughout the school system. It is very focused on trying to broaden the diversity and to ensure that young people understand how to become a teacher, what that is like and to show people as teachers who students might not yet have come across. If you cannot see it, you cannot be it, so to speak. This helps students to visualise themselves in the teaching profession and imagine themselves being there. While the programme is not specifically aimed at the Traveller population, there is an awareness that broadening access to the Traveller community needs to happen as part of the strategy. To do that, as the Deputy noted, the students have to achieve the standards, so they must be retained to leaving certificate. The focus in the Traveller education strategy on retention to leaving certificate will be really important as we continue to try to develop the diversity of the teaching profession.

The number of places for student teacher has increased hugely over the past number of years and we have also broadened the pathways to teaching.

The Department continues to look at that to see whether there are other methods of entry into the teaching profession. Those efforts are mostly underpinned by the desire to try to diversify the profession and see what other pathways would be possible.