The new degree courses to be established outside of the CAO points system have the potential to help address some of the chronic skills shortages in key areas including health, according to Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris.
Mr Harris told delegates at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) conference in Cork he believes a rapid expansion of capacity in areas like nursing will prevent many young Irish people from having to catch Ryanair flights to the UK and work in the NHS.
He confirmed the launch of 14 new degree courses that will allow students to progress to further education through paths outside of the CAO system and finish those courses in universities as long as they have passed the required exams.
“One of the areas I am most excited about is the area of nursing,” he told delegates. “This has the potential to be revolutionary for our country and health service. Every year, students in further education get the highest marks in their plc course in nursing and take the next Ryanair flight to help build the workforce of the NHS. This stops now. These new programmes will help stem that tide and ensure we train our workforce and keep them here.”
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Mr Harris said that he could not put a number on new student nurses to be taken into courses in year one of the initiative and acknowledged that it might be small. But he said the first courses were about “proof of concept” and that he intends to be able to announce a dramatic expansion of the programme as early as this time next year.
“I really want to have a situation in 12 months’ time where I’m able to sit down with every university in Ireland and say, ‘hang on a second, this is working. There’s 14 of these courses. Why are there not 30? Why are they not 40? Why are there not 100?’,” he said.
“So these are the early adopters. We’ll have these in place for September. But be very clear — by the time I’m back at the TUI conference next year, I expect us to be in a significant expansion of rollout space. So the places will be important. Of course, they will. But this year is really about proving the point that actually it’s possible to do this. And then we build them in the years ahead.”
Mr Harris also said he had reached an agreement with the Department of Public Expenditure with regard to a proposed solution to the long-standing dispute over terms and conditions of Adult Education Tutors.
The group has long complained that they lack proper employment status, are not paid increments, do not receive holiday pay and lack pension entitlements. The Labour Court recommended in 2020 that the Government make an attempt to address the issue.
The Minister said officials from his department would sit down with union representatives over the coming days and that he could not pre-empt those talks by disclosing the terms of the offer. But he said he was optimistic the offer would be well received.
“They’ve been waiting a long time for this, but I am very hopeful that this moves us to a much better place in terms of the recognition of the role that they play and also trying to peg, I suppose, their qualification with other equivalent ones.”
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He said there would be moves too to address the concerns expressed by third-level research workers who, like Adult Education Tutors, struggle to access pensions.
This was one of the issues on which the Minister said officials were working.
The speech was politely received but in response, the union’s president, Liz Farrell, suggested the Minister had previously struggled to match his promises with action.
In relation to the research workers, she asked whether they would now also have to wait years for the Dper [Department of Public Expenditure and Reform] to approve their pension.
She cited a range of other areas in which she feels the union’s membership is entitled to feel let down, including class sizes and, given the cost-of-living crisis, pay.
Ultimately, she called on the Minister to look at the huge potential of a sector that is still, she said, inadequately funded in Ireland and said if he could “dream the impossible dream, maybe my colleagues and I might start to believe in fairy tales again”.
