Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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146. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills The extent to which he continues to identify and cater for the demand in terms of graduates in the academic or technical areas, with a view to ensuring the availability of sufficient qualified persons to meet the needs of the marketplace; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59781/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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296. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which he continues to pursue the objective of providing more academic and technical graduates in the future; if he has identified specific targets in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60045/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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297. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the most obvious likely shortages of graduates in the future to meet the demands for the technical sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60046/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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298. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the most obvious likely shortages of graduates in the future to meet the demands for the academic sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60047/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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299. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which fourth level educational qualifications continue to be advanced in line with requirements with particular reference to availability of technical graduates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60048/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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300. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which fourth level educational qualifications continue to be advanced in line with requirements with particular reference to availability of academic graduates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60049/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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302. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which he continues to liaise with the technical sector in education with a view to ensuring adequate provision in respect of graduates in both areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60051/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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303. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which he continues to liaise with both the academic sector in education with a view to ensuring adequate provision in respect of graduates in both areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60052/22]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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304. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which he continues to research future requirements in the education sector with a view to ensuring an adequate supply of graduates throughout; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60053/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 146, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300, 302, 303 and 304 together.

My Department is committed to engaging with all Departments and industry representative bodies to support them in their workforce planning needs. Ensuring we have qualified graduates to meet the skills needs of our workforce is a priority for my Department. Our higher education system has expanded significantly over the past number of years, from 209,300 enrolments in 2014, to 246,299 enrolments in 2021/ 2022.

Funding the Future was launched in May 2022. It provides the policy basis for the vision and direction of higher education funding in a sustainable way. A key element of this policy framework is a focus on driving skills and engagement, with a particular focus on essential public services. Through this policy framework my Department and HEA will strengthen planning for provision, and alignment between the sector and the national skills architecture, including workforce planning for key public services.

Work is ongoing on an updated set of enrolment projections for higher education, which will further assist in this capacity-building programme of work. My Department does not currently produce specific projections for the number of higher education graduates, as a number of variables can impact graduate output in any one year. The HEA graduate outcomes survey for the class of 2021 was published in November. This report shows that 82% of graduates are in employment nine months after graduation, and this is up from 76% for the class of 2020.

There are a number of key strategies in place at all levels to ensure we meet existing and future skills demands. These include policies designed to ensure a pipeline of suitably qualified science and technical graduates, and initiatives to equip young people and the working population more generally with the skills and capacity to meet these demands. Central to shaping these strategies is the partnership approach between the Further and Higher Education system and Government, Industry, the National Skills Council, the National Training Fund Advisory Group, the Regional Skills Fora and the Apprenticeship Council.

The Action Plan for Apprenticeship sets out new ways of structuring, funding, and promoting apprenticeships with a target of 10,000 apprenticeship registrations per year by 2025. In 2021, a record 8,607 new apprentices were registered- an almost 40% increase on the figures from 2019, the last “normal” pre-pandemic year.

The National Skills Council (NSC) within its remit advises on the prioritisation of identified skills needs and on how to secure delivery of these needs. Key high-level trends identified at recent NSC meetings include automation and digitisation, digital literacy and transversal skills. Information on these trends is then used to formulate our skills strategies and initiatives such as the National Skills Strategy 2025; Technology Skills 2022; Springboard+ and the Human Capital Initiative.

My Department will continue to advance efforts to ensure that Ireland offers learning opportunities to all who wish to pursue them and produces the graduates the workforce needs with the skills that our economy and society require.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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147. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide an estimated timeframe for the introduction of new contracts for academic staff working in technological universities in order to develop research capacity; if he will provide an update on his engagement with trade unions and other stakeholders; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59808/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I intend to bring a Memorandum for Government to Cabinet as soon as possible in relation to the OECD Review of technological university academic career paths, contracts and organisation that was commissioned by the Higher Education Authority last year.

In so doing I will also be proposing to my Cabinet colleagues a set of implementing measures arising from my Department's scrutiny of the OECD review. Officials from my Department are engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in this context.

Subject to Cabinet approval in due course in-depth engagement will take place with TU management, staff representatives and relevant stakeholders as appropriate.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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148. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide an update on the online learning hub on sexual consent, launched in January 2022; if there will be stakeholder engagement and follow up with further and higher education institutions on the way that the hub could, if necessary, be further improved and continually updated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59482/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for her question on this matter.

The Consent Hub is a public resource on consent for young people, their families, and educators who work with them. The targeted website sections provide user groups with concise, accurate information relevant to their needs that is designed to be empowering and positive. Users can then learn about further training opportunities. These opportunities provide teachers with the capacity to lead workshops on consent, engage parents through information sharing webinars, enable Higher Education staff to lead on consent education initiatives, and offer consent ambassador training to students.

Content is added on a monthly basis. For example, videos were added in November 2022 from a collaboration with the Shona Project for women and girls, which address ‘Understanding consent’ and ‘Sex, consent, and pop culture’. Social media outreach campaigns promote engagement with the Consent Hub through short videos which provide useful information on consent. For instance a campaign targeted parents in May 2022 and the ‘Consent is for everyone, consent is for everything’ campaign targeted college students in October 2022.

The Active* Consent programme works closely with Galway Rape Crisis Centre (GRCC) as a key stakeholder in the rape crisis support sector. Consent Hub is an entry point to engaging with the First Point of Contact disclosure training programme, which is a joint initiative of Active* Consent and Galway Rape Crisis Centre offered to Further and Higher Education institutions. GRCC have also reviewed Consent Hub content to ensure it is consistent with trauma-informed principles.

Further engagement with stakeholders including the Further and Higher Education sector is planned to ensure that Consent Hub is meeting the needs of a range of user groups. For instance, the Active* Consent programme is working with the IADT ‘Moving parts’ campaign and the RCSI / IADT project on ensuring that consent education is culturally sensitive and inclusive of all groups.

Having developed a consent education portal during 2022, the Consent Hub project has designed a core set of resources, refined dissemination strategies, and developed stakeholder partnerships that allow for ongoing enhancement of this resource in the future.