Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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503. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the main policy achievements of his Department since 27 June 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27963/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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My Department's main policy achievements from 2020 – 2023 have been outlined previously in the following parliamentary question answered on 14th December 2023 available here: .

Some of the main policy achievements for my Department in 2024 thus far, are set out below.

Distributed Campus Support Fund

A new fund to support higher education institutions that have a regionally dispersed footprint was announced in January 2024. The Distributed Campus Support Fund, worth €4.5 million, was created to support higher education institutions that have a multi-campus and regionally dispersed footprint. Financial challenges faced by institutions with multiple campuses, particularly in more remote regional locations, have been identified as an issue over many years.

Joint publication of a Strategic Framework for Lifelong Guidance with the Department of Education

This milestone achievement, announced in December 2023, gives a policy framework to the continuum of guidance services throughout the life-cycle. The Framework and accompanying Strategic Action Plan (2024-2030) provide for the development of an effective and efficient cross-sectoral system of guidance.

Research and Innovation Bill 2024

The Research and Innovation Bill 2024 was published on the 8th on January 2024. The legislation to enable the establishment of Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland passed all stages in the Oireachtas and was signed into law by the President on 4 June 2024.

Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021–25

In 2024, my Department continued to address current backlogs in apprenticeship training and meet future demand?projections as set out in the Report on the Analysis of Skills for Residential Construction & Retrofitting, 2023 to 2030. We continued to deliver on the Public Service Apprenticeship Recruitment Plan. We also continued to?advance social inclusion measures to aid the apprenticeship population in becoming more representative of wider society.

Access

Since the launch of the National Access plan my Department and the Higher Education Authority have continued to work to increase educational opportunities to learners who have not traditionally accessed or participated in Higher Education.

PATH 4 Phase 2 is a three-year pathfinding project to support an enhancement of course provision for students with intellectual disabilities and to inform future policy considerations for students with intellectual disabilities. Under the project, funding is to be used to develop new programmes for learners with intellectual disabilities, and can be used to provide ancillary supports.

Following a call for proposals in 2023, 10 Higher Education Institution’s proposals for courses specifically designed to meet the needs of students with an intellectual disability were approved as a pilot programme, and a budget of over €10 million. The majority of courses are due to start in September 2024 with a wide geographical spread.

Student Accommodation

The long-term student accommodation policy approach was approved by Government on 16 January 2024. The approach includes measures for increasing supply of student accommodation through state support, reducing cost of delivery through development of standardised design guidance, and promoting efficient use of existing stock and vacancy while supporting balanced regional development. It will continue to have a focus on the provision of digs accommodation and will examine commuting alternatives. It also recognises the role and provision of supply from the private sector in key campus locations. This dual benefit policy will make fit for purpose accommodation available for students and therefore increase housing availability for private individuals and families. The long-term policy will inform the revised student accommodation strategy, which will be developed throughout 2024.

In April, capital investment of €100 million from the National Development Plan windfall allocation was announced for delivery of student accommodation projects. This allocation is supporting the development of over 1,000 student beds.

International Cooperation

Global Citizens 2030, Ireland’s new international Talent and Innovation strategy, was launched on 15 January 2024. It sets out Ireland’s international education, research, and innovation ambitions into the next decade and is the first strategy to encompass the breadth of tertiary education, and research and innovation systems.

Construction and Green Skills

My Department works with partners through the cross-government Offshore Wind Energy Programme to support the skills and workforce required for the development of offshore wind. This includes the completion of a detailed skills analysis report by Greentech Skillnet, the expansion of the Expert Advisory Group on Offshore Wind Skills and Workforce Requirements and the development of new training courses, including the new Marine Bridging Programme delivered by the National Maritime College of Ireland.

My Department is leading the development of skills for electro-mobility, through the establishment of a Project Office for a new National e-Mobility Capability Centre in Longford Westmeath ETB, and the creation of an industry aligned e-mobility advisory committee for the FET sector;

Skills training in the area of Nearly Zero Energy Buildings and Retrofit is continuing to be expanded. The six NZEB/Retrofit Centres of Excellence which are now operational in ETBs have seen record enrolments, with the numbers enrolled between January and May 2024 outstipping enrollments for the same period in previous years. NZEB/Retrofit training has also been rolled out on a pilot basis in Wheatfield and Midlands prisons by the Irish Prison Service, and a new incentivisation scheme to support plumbers to upskill to install heat pumps was announced in June.

The 20 actions in the Careers in Construction Action Plan are aimed at minimising barriers to construction careers, promoting career opportunities and making construction jobs more attractive to women and involve changes in the sector, training and upskilling, and promotional activity.

We received planning permission for the National Demonstration Park for Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) at the National Construction Training Campus in Mount Lucas. The Park will showcase innovative MMC products and systems, raise awareness and help to share knowledge and understanding of MMC innovation.

Further Education and Training (FET)

The Department has continued to deliver its programme of reform of the FET sector. This includes:

• A new further education offering of short, stackable micro qualification programmes in areas such as sustainability, digital, robotics, aquaculture, business innovation and market development to upskill staff and future-proof businesses was launched in January.
• A new programme - the Retrofit Skills Course QQI Level 5 component award – was rolled out in the Midlands and Wheatfield prisons.
• Arrangements applying to the new grade of adult educator were agreed.
• I launched the Community Education Framework in early June, marking an important milestone in ensuring a more consistent approach to SOLAS funded community education across the country.
• I welcomed the allocation of €5million under the REACH Fund to community education groups across Ireland, which will support almost 50,000 educationally disadvantaged learners to access and participate in community education.
• Implementation of the Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) strategy. €1 million was awarded to 103 innovative projects under the ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund across the country to support adults with unmet literacy needs, including numeracy and digital skills.
• National Training Fund (NTF): The Department continued to use the NTF to improve the response to enterprise skills and workforce development requirements for digitisation, climate action, Industry 4.0, and Modern Methods of Construction.

Since May 2022, my Department has been progressing a policy for a more unified tertiary system. The aim of the policy is to more closely align the further education and training, higher education and research and innovation sectors in order to meet the diverse needs of all learners throughout their lives.

In May 2022, my Department published a Policy Platform setting out the policy, the desired outcomes and objectives, and a number of Spotlight Actions for my Department and its agencies to progress. Many of these actions are sited within and are being progressed through a wide range of DFHERIS policies across skills FET, Higher Education (HE) and Research and Innovation (R&I) with significant progress achieved to date.

SOLAS in partnership with my Department and ETBs have continued to work with the CAO in 2024 on enhancements to the CAO website.

New capital programmes now include an emphasis on unified tertiary objectives for infrastructure and campus development and applications must now demonstrate how they can support a more unified tertiary system.

The ESRI/DFHERIS Joint Research Programme (2022-2025) has, in May 2024, commenced a project which will evaluate current measures funded through the National Training Fund (NTF), which is intended to inform future proposals in this area.

The Rethinking Assessment Masterclass & Events series, organised by QQI, and aimed at FET and HE educators is continuing in 2024 with several events having taken place between January and April 2024.

In May 2024, QQI commenced a project to continue the redevelopment of the Irish Register of Qualifications (IRQ). QQI continues to promote and communicate the upgraded Qualifax platform with a focus on supporting users to navigate the new site.

In April 2024, QQI published a report titled '20 years of the Irish NFQ - A story of collaboration and cooperation' which reflects on the 20-year history of the NFQ, includes stakeholder perspectives and highlights themes arising from the conference. A plan for reviewing and updating NFQ policies is currently being developed with substantive work expected to start in early 2025.

Funding was provided in 2024 to Skillnet Ireland to develop a pilot project to explore the feasibility of a skills and career guidance portal. This is led by a collaborative inter-agency steering group, and following approval, Skillnet Ireland will move to procure support from a contracted partner.

Under the project ‘Assessing the impact of the tertiary system on innovation in the workplace’, DFHERIS has successfully recruited two fellows, Prof Brian Donnellan (MU) and Dr Krishna Vadlamannati (UCD).

Technological University (TU) Development

My Department secured €83.68 million in technological university-oriented funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) which will facilitate the establishment, equipping and staffing of regional research and innovation offices within the regionally based TUs to enable engagement with local and regional business, industry and enterprise stakeholders.

Health Workforce Planning

An agreement was reached in February this year with Queen's University Belfast, for the funding of 25 additional medical places in Queen's from September 2024 and another 25 in September 2025 bringing the number of places to 50 in total. Students who take up one of these places will commit to applying and accepting, if offered, a position in the HSE as an intern at the end of their studies.

Microcredentials

A Micro-Credentials Learner Fee Subsidy was launched on 12 March 2024, with an allocation of €9.7 million under the Human Capital Initiative (HCI) Pillar 3 to subsidise fees for 13,763 learners across 650 micro-credential courses.

Tertiary Programmes

Applications were opened for the September 2024 intake of Tertiary Programmes in February 2024. 40 programmes are on offer this year, with new programmes in areas such as Social Work and Construction Management and Public Health, while programmes in Nursing are now available in additional locations.