Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not disagree with anything the Deputy said. The profile of a learner or student is going to change in Ireland. Not every student will be 18 straight out of school and packing the bags to go to college for four years. More and more we are going to see people in their 40s, 50s and 60s with full-time jobs, mortgages and some dependants, needing to access to education. There is a challenge for us on two fronts. One is to make the current student support scheme more flexible. That is why I have alluded to the issue of the definition of an approved course, including part-time provisions. That is in the terms of reference. Then there is the more broad point beyond the SUSI support scheme regarding lifelong learning and the model we have in place. As recently as last week I met with the head of the OECD in Paris. We have commissioned them to examine what policy levers we should pull as a Government in respect of supporting people to access lifelong learning. How do we help employers that want to upskill their staff but do not know how they can viably or economically do that? How do we help the citizen who might not qualify for a State support today to be able to access it in an affordable way? The OECD review alongside the SUSI review will answer these questions in the course of 2022.

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