Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister made a very pertinent last point. I have just come from the launch of World Autism Month, which was very close to us here in Kildare Street. As we know, many people with autism are locked out of the workforce. A very pertinent point was made as well on lifelong learning. We have to stop considering our education journey as being finished at 22 or 23. We have to look at that component of education within the workforce, namely, lifelong learning and microcredentialing. The Minister met the Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board, WWETB, with me and we were looking at the retrofitting of houses. One of the issues was that people are not aware that this is a short course. Someone who is already qualified to fit windows or plaster etc. can come back, add to their skills base over a very short timeframe and gain access to a whole other sphere of work. That is incredibly important, particularly in the retrofitting agenda, which is the one that leapt out at me. If a person has a traditional skill already, he or she can retrain in a short period of time to access this whole new economy. Lifelong learning really has to be at the heart of this year of skills as well.

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