Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Higher Education Authority Act (2022) requires that institutions seek to promote the Irish language. The Department distributes recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for disbursement directly to the HEA's designated higher education institutions. The HEA distributes this funding as a block grant to the institutions. As autonomous institutions, each Higher Education Institution (HEI) is responsible for its Irish language strategy, including the expansion and the teaching of university courses through the Irish language.

The Qualifications Advisory Board (QAB) was jointly instituted by the Minister for Education and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs on a non-statutory basis to review Initial Professional Education (Level 7 and Level 8) Degree Programmes for the Early Learning and Care (ELC) Sector for their adherence to the Professional Award Criteria and Guidelines (PACG). These guidelines underpin the quality assurance of professional degree programmes and enable initial professional education course providers to design and deliver a course (including professional practice placement) that develops the necessary values, knowledge(s) and practices in their graduates to enable them to practice as core professionals in the sector.

The QAB has approved 64 programmes in 18 Higher Education Institutions across 30 campuses. Graduates of QAB-approved programmes are eligible for recognition by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) for the graduate premium, and Early Years Educators enrolled on these programmes continue to be eligible to receive funding from DCEDIY through current and future upskilling initiatives.

Any new degree programme developed for the ELC sector, including those that would support graduates in providing full immersion as Gaeilgein ELC settings, would need to be approved by the QAB in order to be in line for automatic recognition of funding of graduates and support for upskilling initiatives .

DCEDIY's Commitments in Nurturing Skills: The Workforce Plan for Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare 2022-2028 includes a commitment to raising qualification levels. This includes to support the development of initial professional education programmes or modules that are conducted through the medium of Irish (at levels 5-8).

Over the course of this Workforce Plan, incremental movement towards regulation of the profession will continue. Steps to be taken over the coming years will involve further development of the process of assuring the quality of courses of initial professional education in ELC and SAC, through extension of the Professional Award-Type Descriptors for ELC and the Professional Award Criteria and Guidelines for higher education awards in ELC to incorporate SAC.

As part of the implementation plan there will be a focus on:• Raising Qualification levels ELC: Supporting the development of initial professional education programmes or modules that are conducted through the medium of Irish for Early Years Educators working in naíonraí within and outside the Gaeltacht. • Supporting the development of initial professional education programmes or modules for SAC that are conducted through the medium of Irish.

In addition, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media (DTCAGSM) are in discussion with Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge regarding the development of a degree in early years education. They are in the process of recruiting a person to deliver this. DTCAGSM, are exploring the possibilities of providing further support to early years educators in the Gaeltacht who undertake to improve their language ability through the TEG system.