Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I am sorry I missed his speech, but I read his script with interest. In particular, I have listened to the previous speakers, Senator Marie Louise O'Donnell and Senator Feargal Quinn.

If the Minister had commissioned no report but simply took on board what those two Senators have outlined, we would be going in the right direction. The kernel of what both Senators have presented to us is a system to get people into the workforce, engaged and involved. We must recognise that one size does not fit all. Not everybody either desires or has the skillset to obtain 600 points in the leaving certificate and to pursue a conventional degree, postgraduate, masters type education. The strong economies across the European Union - forget about Asia, the US and Canada - such as Germany have a traditional form of education, and traditional apprenticeships and schemes to employ people's skills. There was a time in this country when every town had a number of garages, apprentice mechanics, apprentice electricians and apprentice fabricators but in our wisdom with the advent of the Celtic tiger those careers were almost designed not simply to be surplus but non desirable, so to speak, and we thought that everybody should be a computer engineer or a programmer. Good luck to the people with those skillsets. However, there are tens of thousands of young people whose skills have not been suitably employed and deployed.

What Senators Quinn and O'Donnell have pointed out is not a radical alternative but it goes back to what previously we did very well, namely, taking people whether 14, 15 or 18 years of age and giving them opportunities to use the skills which best suited them. I hope that in going forward - to use that awful phrase - we can look back to what we previously did very well. Previously, we allowed people to have trades and professions. There were qualified builders in the construction industry, qualified mechanics, qualified fabricators, qualified electricians and many more skills right across the country. I hope we can look at those opportunities again.

Senator O'Donnell mentioned Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI. I have had a limited amount of engagement with that office recently. There appears to be an over-emphasis on the administrative side and maybe not sufficient emphasis on the practical side. Following a query from a constituent about QQI, I checked its website and structures and wondered where was the practical side rather than the theoretical side. I might engage with the Minister after the debate on QQI.

I am aware the Minister has commissioned all these report which are necessary and I am sure good will flow from them but we need to get back to basics. There are people in the junior cycle who may want alternatives, perhaps non-academic practical skills which have not been provided in the past ten to 15 years. I hope the Minister will consider that issue.

I appreciate the modern economy must be high-tech, high-spec, but it must also have a place for people whose skills and qualifications might be seen as traditional but are still required. I hope the Minister will keep the thousands of young people for whom those skills are appropriate to the forefront of his planning and that there will be openings for apprenticeships in traditional areas.