Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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259. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which it is expected that the skills available through those on the live register may be matched to the skill requirements of the workplace, in respect of both the indigenous and the Foreign Direct Investment sectors, in the short to medium term; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29285/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My Department has a number of strategies and initiatives in place to ensure that education and training meets the skills requirements of the workplace. SOLAS, with the assistance of relevant experts such as the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), employers and local and national organisations, have published a five year strategy for the further education and training sector which provides us with a strategic roadmap for this crucial element of the education and training system. The strategy includes a vision of a flexible, quality-driven, labour market-relevant, integrated and responsive sector that supports learner progression, transitions into employment and personal development. The higher education system is also going through a process of transformation through structural change arising from the Higher Education Strategy.

The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN), which is funded by my Department, advises the Government on current and future skills needs of the economy. It has a central role in ensuring that labour market needs for skilled workers are anticipated and met. The expert group's membership is broad and specifically includes representation from enterprise. Its research provides an input to the development of course curricula and informs the selection of new targeted programmes designed to tackle the skills shortages in particular elements of the economy, such as Momentum, Springboard and the ICT skills conversion programme.

As part of the Action Plan for Jobs 2015, my Department has committed to review the National Skills Strategy. The review will provide an opportunity to determine the volume, type and mix of skills required to meet the Government's goal of full employment by 2018 and the challenges to be addressed to achieve this.

Direct engagement between employers and education and training providers is also critical to ensuring that programmes are aligned to changing skills needs. As well as the actions that are being implemented across the education and training system as part of the Further Education and Training and Higher Education reform programmes to enhance links with enterprise and prepare learners for the different roles they will have over their working lives work is also underway in the context of the Skills Strategy review to develop the regional and national infrastructure for engagement between education providers, employers and other enterprise stakeholders, in communicating and addressing skills needs.

SOLAS also has statutory responsibility for the Apprenticeship system in Ireland. The Apprenticeship system is employer led and the number of craft apprentices registered with SOLAS is determined by individual employers recruiting potential apprentices within a broad range of occupational sectors.

At the end of 2014, apprentice registrations to the existing 27 trades were up 40% on the same point in 2013. The trend is continuing this year and the most recent apprenticeship forecasts anticipate that these growth trends will continue generally until 2018.

It should also be noted that as part of the Government's Action Plan for Jobs initiative in 2013, an independent group was established to carry out a review of the Irish Apprenticeship system to determine whether the current model should be retained, adapted or replaced. The subsequent report of the Review Group made a wide number of recommendations regarding the reform of existing apprenticeships and the extension of the apprenticeship model into new enterprise areas. An Apprenticeship Implementation Plan was published in June 2014 in that regard.

A new industry-led Apprenticeship Council was appointed in November 2014 and is made up of a wide variety of stakeholders. In January 2015, the Apprenticeship Council formally invited proposals for new apprenticeship programmes from consortia of enterprise, professional bodies and education and training providers.

Over 80 separate proposals were received in response to the call for proposals. They have been assessed by the Apprenticeship Council against a range of sustainability and deliverability criteria and I have recently received the Council's report with recommendations on proposals that should be developed into apprenticeships. I am currently considering the recommendations with a view to progressing a number of proposals to the development stage.