Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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My Department recognises the importance of ensuring that our graduates are equipped with skills that are relevant to the needs of learners, society and the economy. Human skills, also known as soft skills or transversal skills, such as leadership, creativity, team working, problem solving and emotional intelligence are in high demand among employers, alongside technical and professional skills required in the workforce.

Promoting agility in the workplace is an important aspect of Further Education and Training (FET) provision. ‘Building Skills’ is a core pillar of the current FET Strategy, and transversal skills, including ‘human skills’ are specifically highlighted. Programmes such as traineeships, which incorporate classroom and on-the-job training, aim to give learners both the technical know-how and the practical soft skills to succeed in the modern marketplace.

The Skills to Compete programme, which was introduced in 2020 to support people who had become displaced from employment as a result of the pandemic, prioritises delivering the essential skills, including soft skills for modern workplaces, as well as building strong digital skills and specific vocational skills. The Skills to Advance programme offers upskilling and reskilling opportunities through accredited QQI courses to those in employment and their employers. The objective of this scheme is to enable targeted support for vulnerable groups in the Irish workforce. Such support is provided to those persons, who have lower skills levels (including soft skills) so that they may avoid displacement and avail of emerging job opportunities in the future.

In higher education, we are actively engaging with higher education colleagues on how to incorporate these key skills into individual courses.

The Human Capital Initiative (HCI), funded by my Department, forms a key part of the strategic response to a changing world of work and the challenges the economy will face in the period ahead. HCI Pillar 3 aims to promote innovation and reform in the higher education sector and ensure that courses in areas of skills needs demonstrate innovative methods of teaching and delivery.

A number of the projects funded under HCI Pillar 3 have an explicit focus on the teaching and development of transversal skills within their programmes, providing useful learning for the wider sector. For example, Dublin City University’s ‘DCU Futures’, Maynooth University’s ‘Virtual Laboratories’, University of Galway’s ‘Designing Futures’, and University College Cork’s ‘The iEd Hub’ all place an emphasis on transversal skills, so that graduates are equipped with work-ready human skills and can adapt in a rapidly changing workplace.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are autonomous institutions within the meaning of the Universities Act 1997, the Institutes of Technology Acts 1992 to 2006 and the Technological Universities Act 2018. Under this legislation, HEIs are independent and are entitled to regulate their own academic affairs and administrative processes, including in relation to course provision. Any policy around the teaching of soft skills within higher education courses is a matter for individual institutions, in line with their autonomy, and is not under the direct control of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.