Smart Choices: A rapidly changing landscape boosts options for all learners

Ireland is currently undergoing a radical transformation in how we structure the educational and training opportunities for our school-leavers and adult population.

The central challenge for any education system is to build on the innate skills and talents of our existing workforce and emerging adults and, as they leave second-level education, to equip them with the skills to fulfil their potential in a manner that will prepare them for the challenges of the 21st century world of work.

Never before have scientific and technological advances changed the nature of work so rapidly. Roles embedded in the working world since the birth of the industrial revolution more than 200 years ago are becoming redundant overnight.

Technological revolutions in IT transformed the working world over the past 25 years only to be recently overtaken by the artificial intelligence evolution which is still in its infancy.

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The key to meeting this challenge head-on is to provide as flexible a range of educational and training options as possible for school-leavers, who are moving into the labour market, alongside equally flexible options for the entire adult population to enable each person to access the opportunities they require to remain competitive.

We are thankfully rapidly moving away from a model in which success is measured exclusively in terms of university courses attended immediately following the release of the latest set of Leaving Cert results through the CAO application process.

How are we responding to the challenge of ensuring that we address the employability needs of our 21st century economy?

Looked at from the perspective of any aspiring learner, for a programme of study to be successful it must be a good fit for their particular/unique strengths and aptitudes.

For school-leavers who make up 60 per cent of those who apply for courses through the CAO annually, the 25 per cent who do so in the following two to three years after leaving second-level education, and the mature applicants over 23 years of age who seek places in adulthood, the core of their learning is through engagement of an academic and research nature.

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These university students who secure places through the CAO will spend a number of years sitting in lecture theatres, attending tutorials, writing essays, studying for long hours in college libraries and taking written exams at regular intervals.

For many aspiring learners of all ages, CAO-type courses offered in our traditional and technological universities are completely unsuitable learning environments, completely at variance with their learning styles.

They may enhance their skills more effectively through a combination of observation and hands-on practice – often combined with ongoing practical evaluations to assess the levels of competency being achieved.

In many of our fellow EU-partner countries, such practical hands-on courses have equal status to those offered by academic institutions.

In Ireland, societal pressures have to date driven thousands of young people down the academic route, where they often floundered and eventually dropped out at huge expense to their sense of self-esteem, their parents’ bank balance and the taxpaying public.

Thankfully, attitudes are beginning to change, and wonderful opportunities are now on offer through further education, apprenticeships, traineeships and direct employment where learning occurs alongside work. Thankfully, these learning routes are gaining more and more recognition from society at large.

Further education

There are up to 30,000 places available in further-education colleges throughout the country. They are validated by Quality and Qualifications Ireland at level five and six.

Details of every course on offer is available through the PLC course list on both the qualifax.ie and fetchcourses.ie websites.

Examples of just a few courses on offer in one small area of south Dublin include: Blackrock FEI offers games development, computer science, and arts and social science where graduates can apply through CAO for degree courses in UCD, TU Dublin and IT Tallaght. Graduates from Blackrock FEI business studies and law courses can progress to the business, economics and social studies and law degrees at Trinity.

Stillorgan CFE offers a new level five course in digital entrepreneurship/ebusiness designed to respond to the recent increase in remote working, equipping students with the practical skills to start their own online business.

Dundrum CFE offers sustainability and built environments exploring the core principles of sustainability in construction, the scale of the detrimental environmental impact of traditional building and the rationale underpinning the necessity for a more sustainable approach to building as a response to climate change.

These examples of FE opportunities are replicated in every corner of Ireland through colleges managed by the network of education training boards.

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In July this year, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris announced a historic change in third-level education with the launch of 23 tertiary education programmes offering students the opportunity to earn a university level degree outside of the points system.

The programmes are co-designed and co-delivered by further and higher education providers. Students will be able to enrol in one of 23 degree courses in a further education institution in an education and training board before progressing to a higher education institution to complete their fully accredited degree.

For more information on the programmes and to apply visit nto.ie.

Apprenticeships

Thanks to rapidly changing perceptions within Government and among employers, the range of apprenticeship opportunities has diversified in recent years.

The launch of the Action Plan for Apprenticeships in 2022 is aiming to double the number available as well as creating simplified routes to entry, and improved flexibility within the system.

Many employers are now advertising their vacancies on the recently developed jobs portal on apprenticeship.ie.

Traineeships

For students interested in a more direct route to employment, a traineeship is worth considering. It combines learning in an education and training setting and in the workplace, and provides learners with job-specific training and workplace coaching with an employer, at levels four to six on the National Framework of Qualifications.

Traineeships also give students the opportunity to gain valuable experience in real work and industry environments, providing cutting-edge industry skills. Traineeships are six to 20 months in duration and are delivered through local education and training boards. See solas.ie for more information.

For those whose learning styles match the offerings of our traditional and technological universities, the challenges of self-motivation over a three- to four-year degree programme, and securing accommodation adjacent to the college itself to enable one to fully engage in the formative experience that university offers, will remain the goal.

For tens of thousands of others with different skill sets, the opportunities offered through the alternative routes outlined above are innovative, in tune with the ever-changing demands of our economy and individual employers, locally available, and in many cases remunerated from day one.

The key to sustainable employability and personal contentment for all citizens is to build on each person’s unique strengths and learning styles as they engage with learning opportunities across the lifespan.