Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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98. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 85 of 30 March 2023, if he will indicate in which academic year the additional academic places will be introduced in therapy disciplines resulting from the expression of interest process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26739/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The delivery of healthcare programmes is complex and requires coordination across multiple parts of the health and education systems, particularly in relation to the oversight and governance of clinical placements.

Following challenges faced by the higher education sector in securing sufficient appropriate and reliable clinical placements, in mid-2022 my Department established a working group to identify and address barriers to expansion in the health and social care professions. This working group includes representatives from the Department of Health, the HSE, CORU, and the Higher Education sector, with officials from the Department of Education and Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth joining more recently.

This group has made good progress and the Health and Social Care Professions Office within the HSE is developing a Framework for Practice Placement Education. I understand that the Department of Health have also recently appointed a Health and Social Care Professions Officer to lead on enabling expansion in health and social care professions.

Officials from my Department are continuing to engage with Higher Education Institutions to maximise additionality in Health and Social Care Professional undergraduate programmes in September 2023, and subsequent years. My officials are also engaging with the Department of Health as these additional places require additional resources, and fundamentally require placements to be put in place by the HSE and the Department of Health.

The HEA has also advised higher education institutions of their intention to conduct an exercise to identify where substantial additional capacity could be built in priority Health and Social Care Profession disciplines. It is important that planning for such provision takes account of timelines for the development of physical infrastructure, the recruitment of staff, and the approval of programmes by regulators.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Investment in people and the skills and capabilities they hold is a priority for Government. Skills and continuous learning are vital for enabling individuals and countries to thrive in an increasingly, interconnected and rapidly changing world.

In devising our overall policy response to meeting skills needs there is a balance to be struck between investment in core funding to support the capacity and capability of institutions to respond in an agile and sustainable way to skills demands, including by strengthening graduate competences and outcomes as well as more targeted initiatives including Springboard+ and the Human Capital Initiative, and the work of Skillnet, in supporting individuals to upskill, reskill and learn, with a positive impact across society and the economy.

Springboard+ and Human Capital Initiative Pillar 1 continue to support those who are unemployed or returning to the workforce to gain sustainable employment. In addition, they are providing opportunities for workforce development, enhancing the skill levels of those in employment. Collaboration between enterprise and higher education providers is key to the design and delivery of the programmes. Most programmes are delivered either fully online or in a blended format making them fully accessible. Since 2011, over 100,000 people have benefited from Springboard+.

Ensuring that we make our interventions based on sound evidence and evaluations is critical, and the HEA is currently undertaking a mid-term review of the 24 HCI Pillar 3 projects. Each project has been subject to a review process and a detailed report will be published in June 2023, focused on the implementation, management, impact and alignment of HCI Pillar 3 projects against their stated objectives and overall programme objectives.

In late 2022, the Government designated Skillnet Ireland to lead workforce development for small and medium businesses to stimulate increased engagement of enterprise in the skills agenda, and to facilitate a more targeted approach to workforce development to advance their competitiveness, productivity and innovation.?The European Commission and the OECD have identified the Skillnet Ireland model as a best practice public-private cooperation example for workforce development and a means of incentivising SME investment in skills.? The recent Government White Paper on Enterprise Strategy also highlighted the need to build on Skillnet Ireland’s enterprise networks to drive workforce development. To support this, my Department will develop a policy framework for delivering on Skillnet Ireland’s mandate for enterprise skills and workforce development priorities in partnership with the university system.

Finally, the recently completed OECD Review of Ireland's Skills performance provides important external validation and learning for the continued development and implementation of skills policy.