Wednesday, 18.03.2009
Call for reform of education and training

The National Competitiveness Council (NCC) has called for a renewed emphasis on strengthening and reforming aspects of the education and training system in Ireland as part of the broader effort to reignite economic growth.

Launching its Statement on Education and Training, the Council also highlighted the need for all stakeholders to recognise the stark fiscal realities facing Government and respond with the necessary flexibility to ensure that our education system can continue to improve the quality of learning and skill levels of the population.

National Competitiveness Council Chairman, Dr Don Thornhill, said 'As knowledge and creativity increasingly become the basis of competition, high skill levels are vitally important to economic performance, living standards and social inclusion. Without a world class education and training system Ireland will have great difficulty in succeeding in the face of intensifying global competition and in protecting recent increases in our living standards. Ireland has consistently achieved strong education outcomes with relatively modest investment.

'Our policymakers and educators must be ambitious and continue to strive for the best outcomes for students. This applies even more strongly in an environment of very scarce public resources. This is the only way to ensure that our children, young people and adult learners are equipped with the knowledge, the skills and the personal and moral attributes that are necessary to support a socially inclusive society underpinned by economic development and high employment and living standards.

'Though some areas of our education system require additional funding, many of the recommendations made in this paper are revenue-neutral and necessary reforms can be achieved with a focus on student performance and flexibility from all stakeholders,' continued Dr Thornhill.

The following are some of the key recommendations made by the NCC:

Enhancing Ireland’s Higher Level Education System

• It is vital to clearly identify the expected outcomes to be achieved by the sector over the next decade and set an agreed vision to provide higher education institutions with the autonomy and funding required to achieve these outcomes.
• Higher education tuition fees should be reinstated in conjunction with a revised student maintenance grant, a universal student loan system and targeted tuition waivers based on both income and assets to ensure that lower and lower-middle income families are not disadvantaged.
• Greater specialisation and amalgamation of courses among Irish HEIs is required in order to reach critical mass.
• Greater use of competitive funding mechanisms would yield efficiency
  improvements in the delivery of higher level education.
• Implementation of the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation is
  important and high levels of R&D spending will contribute to closing the gap
  between facilities available to researchers in this country and leading knowledge economies.

Further Education and Training

• Investment in further education and training courses should be targeted in areas where skills shortages are forecast and in sectors where potential exists for future employment growth.
• There is a need for a pro-active upskilling plan for workers in the construction
  sector who lack formal qualifications and those that have had their apprenticeship terminated mid-programme.
• A balance must now be struck between repositioning the skills of the newly
  unemployed, with the longer-term objective of upskilling the entire workforce.
• The provision of workplace based training, which is fitted around working hours, needs to be actively promoted.