Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome to the House. Like previous speakers, I ask him to pass on to the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, our wishes for his speedy recovery. I welcome the Bill. I have had the experience only in recent years of being involved with Springboard and I am reminded of very different touches that are needed. There is no one solution to this problem. People are unemployed, looking for work but their skills may be in a different area from the area in which vacancies may arise. The Minister has ensured that what is provided in the Bill is not only a replacement for FÁS - he explained that well - and he has avoided the duplication that might have occurred in many other ways. I welcome his efforts in this area. Proper organisation of future education and training is vital for the economy.

I am glad the Bill proposes a strong relationship between SOLAS, the Department of Social Protection and the employers, which is the relationship on which I want to touch. We must concentrate on linking the provision of further education and its relationship with the private sector. Through my involvement with Springboard I learned of the number of different organisations that are involved in training, teaching and education at quite a high level. It is not only the traditional colleges that are doing this, many others are also doing it.

The Government must look more closely at what other countries are doing in terms of relating training to social welfare. The real point of legislation such as this is to get people back to work and back into the workforce. We cannot think of education and training in a vacuum. The Government must sometimes implement measures to nudge people back into the workforce. We need more emphasis on the so-called principle of activation. I will give the example of Denmark. The term the Danes use in this context is "activation". The Danish state offers an activity such as training on the job or whatever it may be - be it to an unemployed person or a volunteer - and the person is obliged to accept it. There is no option of simply continuing on benefits if one refuses to work or refuses training. That is the basic principle applied in Germany, the Netherlands and in some other EU member states. The state will help a person find work or provide training but after a certain period if the individual refuses all jobs, all offers or the training available, the person will return to being on social welfare.

I was startled to read in the Sunday Independent recently that one in every seven people on social welfare has never worked a single day in their lives. I could not get over that and did not realise that was the case. The benefit claimed is jobseeker's benefit and it used to be called unemployment benefit. Other reports show that one in three people offered a place on the back to work scheme failed to show up for interview. I am not generalising but highlighting a reality which the Government needs to face.

We need to ensure that we introduce this principle in tandem with the reorganisation of further education and training, which the Minister has done efficiently in this Bill. We must also recognise that degrees have become, if I dare say it, slightly devalued because so many people have them and some real world skills desired by employers are at a premium. Many countries are now trying to bridge the gap between education and work by upgrading vocational schools, encouraging standard schools to form closer relationships with local companies and embracing apprenticeships. We have moved away from this. We spoke in the House recently of the danger of concentration on academic skills only and losing touch with the ability to do things. In 2010, South Korea created a network of vocational meisters schools - the word "meister" comes from the German for master craftsman - to address the country's shortage of machine operators and plumbers. It had concentrated to a very large extent on academics. The South Korean Government pays the students' room and board as well as their tuition. We have a massive shortage of ICT professionals here. Could we consider something similar here to address that skills gap? We know there is a skills gap but what are we doing to address it and in the real world what can SOLAS do to forge links with the private sector?

In the UK some further education colleges are embracing the principle that the best way to learn is to do - l love that term. If one is going to learn, one is much better doing what one is learning rather than sitting at a desk learning about it. North Hertfordshire College has launched a business venture with a gymnasium. Bluegrass College in Kentucky and Toyota have created a replica of a car factory where workers and students go to classes together. I would love to see something like that being done here. I remember reading a book about Toyota many years ago and noting how dramatically it changes things.

While not strictly related to further education, I would like to mention some practical changes that could improve our education system. Could we offer voluntary catch-up classes, as are offered in France? During the summer months in France such classes are offered to students who feel they have been left behind. Could we follow the model in Finland where teachers get shorter holidays and the long breaks are typically used to take training courses? Those are only some of some of the changes that could be made. A number of those points were made by previous speakers.

I wish to touch on one further point about which I have a strong view, namely, the need for language development. We must find a way to solve that. It was interesting to hear other speakers mention this issue. We have five children in our family, as the Minister will know, and we sent them all to school in France. That was dangerous in as much as the two girls fell in love with French men and are now married to French men and so we have got a very strong link with that part of the world. We have one French grand-daughter in Paris who is in her third year in college in China. She is studying law and Chinese and she was encouraged in France to study in China. I am not sure that we are doing enough in that area - there is so much we can do.

I have referred in the House previously to the Michel Thomas method of teaching, particularly French. An article in The Guardian newspaper described the Michel Thomas method of teaching French in a school. The article states:

He astounded staff at a school in north London by teaching a group of teenagers deemed incapable of learning languages. In one week, they learned the amount of French it normally takes five years to acquire.

This method is taught without the giving of homework and, as I understand it, without even books. Imagine the possible application of this method in terms of further education and training? Could we try it out and be truly innovative in this way? There are a large number of vacant jobs in Europe but we are being excluded from that market. We can do something about it ourselves but it needs a firm concentration on learning other languages. If we could do that, we would take a large step towards helping to bring in the foreign companies that come to Ireland.

When Hewlett Packard, or a similar company, announced the creation of 100 jobs, a reporter asked what was required and was told that jobseekers needed another foreign language. The reporter replied that would exclude the Irish. It was a matter of no Irish need apply because we are not very good at languages. There must be better ways to improve language education. The Michel Thomas method is just one way to learn a language. I urge the Minister to do something to improve the teaching of languages.

I welcome the Bill and the Minister's commitment. The changes made to the Bill in the Dáil will enhance the legislation and help achieve its goals.