Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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869. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to report when he expects the independent expert panel appointed by his Department in March 2024 to conduct an evaluation of FET practitioner staffing structures in ETBs against international comparators will complete its work and publish its report. [27302/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Key to the development of the Further Education and Training (FET) sector and the realisation of the full potential of the FET College of the Future is reform of the current systems and staffing structures. This is called out as an enabling theme in the FET Strategy 2020-2024.

To support the reform agenda, my Department appointed an Independent Expert Panel in March 2024 to evaluate FET practitioner staffing structures in Education and Training Boards (ETBs), against international comparator countries.

The Panel has conducted extensive stakeholder engagement, including in-person consultations with each of the 16 ETBs across Ireland. The Panel also met with learner, employer and staff representatives, as well as with other key national stakeholders. As part of their schedule of engagements with international bodies and the selected comparator countries (Australia, Finland, Scotland, the USA), they conducted numerous online interviews, meetings and analyses.

The Panel will submit its final report with findings and recommendations to the Department in the coming weeks. It is expected that the report will be published later this year.