Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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95. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which he continues to pursue the expansion of the academic and technical syllabus to cater for the requirements now and in the future, having particular regard to the changing job specifications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26652/23]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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This issue was touched on earlier. To what extent is there a need to ensure, insofar as possible, that skill levels are sufficient to meet the current and future challenges given the trends to date?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for this question, a version of which he quite regularly puts down. It is important that we make sure the third level education system and our skills infrastructure are prepared for the future requirements of our economy and society. We are undergoing a dual transition, with the greening of the economy and the digital transformation, and we have to make sure the third level education sector is able to respond to that. My Department continues to prioritise strengthening our skills ecosystem to ensure it will have the agility and flexibility to adapt to the changing priorities in skills and workforce development. This focus is underpinned by a detailed and comprehensive OECD report on Ireland's skills strategy, which I commissioned and which was published on 9 May.

Bodies such as the SOLAS skills and labour market research unit and our expert group on future skills needs have a key role in assessing and forecasting the skills and talent needs in an economy being transformed by both digitisation and the decarbonisation agenda. The analysis these bodies carry out is central to informing the programme planning throughout the tertiary system and flexible and innovative responses to changes in the world of work through the human capital initiative and Springboard+. That agility and flexibility is underscored by the responsiveness to industry and enterprise workforce needs under a number of initiatives. The action plan for apprenticeships, for example, is a practical way of providing other pathways for qualification in a way that works for both learners and industry. Other examples are the green skills for further education and training roadmap and the national digital strategy, Harnessing Digital.

Ireland's success in ensuring those with qualifications from the tertiary system meet the economy's needs is evidenced by the results of the Higher Education Authority's national graduate outcome survey, which shows that 81.9% of graduates in 2021 were in employment nine months after graduation. We now have the lowest level of unemployment in the history of our State. I assure the Deputy it will be a priority to ensure a continued level of responsiveness by our education system to what is rapid technological change, including from, in particular, the expected substantial impact of artificial intelligence, AI, on our workforce.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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To what extent have the Minister and his Department been able to identify the areas that are most in need at this time? What procedures are in place to address the shortages in good time?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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SOLAS has a unit that specifically monitors labour market needs. I do not think it will come as a huge surprise to the Deputy that we are seeing significant requirements for people in construction, ICT and digital skills and a range of other sectors. Bulletins published monthly in that regard are useful and informative.

The question as to how we should respond is the especially interesting one. As I was trying to say in response to an earlier question, we have to recognise that responding does not just mean setting up a four-year degree programme for everyone in the country. That is not practical when more and more of the upskilling and reskilling requirements are from people holding down full-time jobs. They may be in work, in a reasonably well-paid, secure job, and all of a sudden the green transition, the digitisation agenda or AI is coming at them. How can we enable the education system to provide education in a way that works for those people? More and more often, students are going to be in their 40s, with a full-time job, and perhaps be caring for children or parents. They have to be able to access education in a more flexible way, and that is where our focus is too.