Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue.

With respect to the area of Higher Education, as she will be aware the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest has a campus in Ennis serving County Clare. Previously, County Clare had lacked a university presence of its own, being instead traditionally served by higher education institutions such as the University of Limerick, Mary Immaculate College and the University of Galway. However, with the creation of TUS on 1st October 2021, that has now changed. The TUS Ennis campus offers two courses in Social Care Work, with around 50 students enrolled.

In 2023, my Department introduced the new tertiary degree programmes, which see students begin their degree in a Further Education institution, and then progress to complete it in a Higher Education institution. In September 2023 a Bachelor of Business (Hons) tertiary degree was offered in Ennis College of FET, with students due to progress onwards to their second year, in TUS Limerick, in September 2024. This transition from Further Education to Higher Education will be completely seamless, through the development of shared curriculum, teaching collaboration, programme co-design and co-delivery within shared space and shared student experience. This programme will be run again this September and an additional programme, a Bachelor of Business in Business and Computing, will also be available at Ennis College of FET.

Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB) provides a diverse range of further education and training (FET) options in County Clare. This includes full-time and part-time courses including courses for the employed and unemployed, adult and Community Education, Post Leaving Certificate courses, Youthreach, Apprenticeships and Traineeships.

FET provision in County Clare has recently been expanded to cater for additional Electrical Apprenticeship training located in Ennis Campus and additional English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses across the county.

The FET provision in County Clare, as across the country, is being supported and expanded by the investment under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025, the Adult Literacy for Life Strategy and Future FET: Transforming Learning, the FET Strategy 2020-2024. All 16 ETBs, including LCETB, have a Strategic Performance Agreement in place with SOLAS covering 2022-2024. In all agreements each ETB sets out their local ambition for achievement across 12 agreed national targets.