Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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595. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will instruct third level colleges to implement procedures to include entrepreneurship as part of the third level curriculum for students, in both business and non-business courses; and if she will ensure that such initiatives are mainstreamed and embedded in every higher and further education institution here. [15607/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Entrepreneurial skills are vital to Ireland's economic recovery and enhance the student's employability: be it starting their own business; working for a large corporation or contributing to society as a social entrepreneur. The HEA has published the first System Performance Report on how higher education performance will align with the broader national objectives of the Higher Education Strategy. While the report has noted that programmes and disciplines are well aligned to what the market needs, and there is good and improving graduate employment, it also recognises that there is a need for improved liaison between the HEIs and industry/enterprise. With this in mind, the HEA has developed an enterprise engagement strategy, which will aim to further improve liaison between HEIs and enterprise. A key recommendation of the enterprise engagement strategy will be to embed entrepreneurship education and skills in higher education.My Department, the HEA, QQI and a number of higher education institutions are involved in a national project to promote entrepreneurship in higher education via the European Commission and OECD initiative HEInnovate ().

In relation to Further Education and Training, a 5 year strategy for the Further Education and Training sector has been developed by SOLAS and includes education for entrepreneurship skills. As part of its Corporate Plan 2014 - 2016, SOLAS will promote and ensure the inclusion of entrepreneurship into all appropriate new and existing FET programmes that are funded through SOLAS. SOLAS will also commission research on best practice in entrepreneurship education and training methods as well as the impact of such education and training in FET programmes and disseminate the findings.