Written answers
Tuesday, 5 July 2016
Department of Education and Skills
Further Education and Training Programmes
Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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166. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide details of any recent studies, undertaken or commissioned by his Department, of how Ireland compares internationally on macro indicators of lifelong learning; if he will outline the results and conclusions of these studies; and his views on policies to improve lifelong learning here. [19109/16]
Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Skills and Labour Market Research Unit in SOLAS, on behalf of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN), monitors participation in lifelong learning in Ireland, comparing the results with other EU Countries. Reports on this monitoring work are published on the EGFSN website www.skillsireland.ie. The most recently published report relates to data collected from the Quarter 4 2014 Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS).
Work is nearing completion on results collected from the Quarter 4 2015 QNHS report which will be compared with data from Eurostat, the EU's statistical agency, to show how Ireland compares to other EU countries. That report will shortly be published on the EGFSN website.
The new National Skills Strategy, highlights the importance of lifelong learning and outlines a number of actions aimed at promoting and supporting participation. The Strategy has set targets to increase life long learning participation rates to 10% in 2020 and 15% by 2025.
Sam O'Brien - Olinger
Posted on 14 Jul 2016 1:36 pm (Report this comment)
An objective of the National Positive Ageing Strategy is to “promote access to a wide range of opportunities for continued learning and education for older people” (Dept. of Health, 2013, p.20). To achieve this objective we feel that greater recognition needs to be given to the importance of lifelong and intergenerational learning (formal and non-formal) in the development of policy, community development and in the achievement of intergenerational equality and solidarity.
Lifelong learning, as a key part of adult and community education, results in a range of positive outcomes including improvement to quality of life, reduced risk of social exclusion and isolation, an overall increase in self-confidence and general well-being, keeping mentally and socially active and learning new skills.
learning should not only be divided into a place and time to acquire knowledge (school) and a place and time to apply the knowledge acquired (the workplace). Instead, learning should also be understood as something that takes place on an ongoing basis in every aspect of our lives from cradle to the grave.
According to the most recent SOLAS report, Lifelong Learning among Adults in Ireland Quarter 4 2014, participation rates in lifelong learning in Ireland (7.3%) are below the EU average (10.5%) and they have been widening since 2009 (SOLAS, 2015, p.5). Ireland also lags significantly behind the top performing countries such as Denmark (31.4%), Sweden (28.1%) and Finland (24.9%).
An EU education and training benchmark aim is to reach a participation rate in lifelong learning of 15% by 2020. In order to achieve this rate in Ireland, much greater investment is needed to ensure that lifelong learning continues to play a vital role in enabling people of all ages to participate in the human, social, economic and cultural development of Irish society.
According to the 2015 Further Education and Training Plan (SOLAS, 2015, p.43), less than €200,000 is being invested in ‘Lifelong Learning Opportunities’ in 2015. This investment clearly falls short of what is required to see a social return and to meet the EU objective of a 15% participation rate in lifelong learning.
Given the importance of lifelong learning as set out above, and in order to achieve the relevant Government and EU targets, will the Department be investing greater resources and giving higher priority to older learners' needs?