Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am, but we can only manage to maintain our competitiveness if we do not stand still and do not get complacent or too comfortable in terms of where we stand. We have seen great progress in Ireland over the last decade or so. Recent figures from the CSO Measuring Ireland’s Progress 2018 highlighted that Ireland has the highest rate of STEM graduates at 3.2% of population aged 20-29. This is an increase of one place since the 2017 figures and, encouragingly, it is well above the EU average of 1.9%. The report also highlighted that Ireland is third in the EU for those aged 25-34 with third level education and the overall level of education of the population has been rising steadily over time. Total higher graduate enrolments increased 9.2% between 2014-2015 and 2018-2019. There have been steady increases throughout a variety of years based on the figures available in the report.

We need to work on designing the education programmes to fit not just the economic needs at a macro level, but people's individual needs in terms of where they want to get to in life and what careers they want to pursue and how we help them to get there. This is some of the work that my Department needs to do to help design and develop those education programmes and the qualifications. Our universities also have to recognise that not everyone in life can sign up for four years. The person who wants to return to education at 40 or 50 might not be able to drop out of the labour force for two, three or four years. Micro credentials and modular learning are key developments we need as well.

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