Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 629: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the new contribution her Department will make to the Government's activation strategy for persons most removed from the labour market; the contacts and the content of same, she or representatives of her Department have had with the Department of Social and Family Affairs or the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on the strategy; the contacts planned with the other two Departments to discuss the strategy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [12887/07]

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The National Development Plan 2007-2013 introduces an active case management approach that will support those on long term social welfare into education, training and employment. The target is to support 50,000 such people, including lone parents and the long term unemployed, with an overall aim of reducing by 20% the number of those whose total income is derived from long term social welfare payments by 2016. This target will be reviewed in the light of experience.

Increases in the provision for Further Education have been a significant feature of every budget. The 2007 Estimates of nearly €169m for further education represents an increase in funding of 12%, over last year. Hence, there has never been a better opportunity to return to education, be it in a part-time or full-time capacity. Any adult who wishes to return to education and/ or who wishes to further their education has the chance now to participate in the many opportunities and options that are available in the further education sector. Education and training programmes in the Further Education sector, include part time provision e.g. Adult Literacy, Community Education and the Back to Education Initiative along with full time provision e.g. Youthreach, Senior Traveller Training, Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme and Post Leaving Certificate programmes.

The NDP 2007-2013 has given as its top priorities in the Working Age Education Programme the need to address the low literacy levels of the Irish adult population and also the large numbers of Irish adults who have not completed upper second level education. Adult literacy, has been the top priority in adult education in my Department for some years now. Great efforts have been made to promote equality of access to education, especially for people whose initial experiences may have been negative.

I welcome the Report of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN), "Tomorrow's Skills: Towards A National Skills Strategy". A senior official of my Department was a member of the sub-group that was established to prepare the report. The EGFSN report complements and reinforces policy for upskilling not only those most removed from the labour market but also the workforce in accordance with the recommendations of a number of policy reports including the White Paper on Adult Education, "Learning for Life" (2000), the Report of the Task Force on Lifelong Learning (2002), the OECD Report, "Promoting Adult Learning" (2005) and more recently Towards 2016 — Ten Year Framework Social Partnership Agreement 2006-2015, the NDP 2007-2013 and the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016. Policy on further education is based on the premise that raising the basic skills of all individuals can have a larger impact on economic growth than investing in improving the skills of a select group of high-skilled individuals.

I believe that increased participation in Lifelong Learning through enhanced opportunities to access education and training, the development of new skills, the acquisition of recognised qualifications and progression to higher level qualifications equip all individuals with the skills, capacity and potential to participate fully in the knowledge-based society and progress to better quality jobs. The new contributions of Further Education, which have been outlined in "Towards 2016" and in the National Development Plan 2007-2013, over the next 10 years will:

Prioritise adult literacy in the area of adult education, including workplace literacy. The proportion of the population aged 16-64 with restricted literacy will be reduced to between 10%-15% by 2016, from the level of 25% found in 1997. Vocational Education Committees will provide an additional 7,000 places in literacy by 2009, from the current level of 35,000 participants annually. There will be a particular focus on increasing the number of migrants receiving an English language service;

provide an additional 1,000 Youthreach places by 2009. €574 m. is being made available for Youthreach over the period 2007-2013;

provide guidance/counselling to literacy and language learners;

expand the Back To Education Initiative (BTEI) by 2,000 places by 2009;

maximise the opportunities for older people to participate in education, employment and other aspects of economic and social life;

continue to invest in the post-leaving certificate sector, where a total of €1 billion will be made available over the period 2007-2013. This will enable participants to acquire specific vocational skills to enhance their prospects of securing employment and support their progression to other studies;

Further Education policy will continue to work towards engaging those persons who are most removed from the labour market. Officials from my Department will continue to be in contact with other Government Departments in the promotion of this policy.