Young people filling out their CAO forms at present should seriously consider courses and careers in the key technician areas, says Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin. Ireland's single most important competitive advantage lies in education and training, he explains. But, the problem is that many young people do not realise the potential offered by technical careers.
At second level, he says, there is a need for very significant awareness programmes and much more practical guidance. A major conference, aimed at explaining careers in industry, is under consideration by the Tanaiste, Mary Harney, and the Minister.
Jobs for technicians are many and varied, with excellent starting salaries and the opportunity to gain additional qualifications and develop personally and professionally. The Minister points to a number of initiatives are already in place. For instance, the National Council for Educational Awards has produced a resource pack promoting engineering and technical careers for women. The National Centre for Guidance in Education has pointed to the need for co-ordinating these initiatives to prevent overlap.
"Ensuring that the country meets the skills demands of industry is an important national issue," says the Minister. "I'm committed to ensuring that our education system is to the fore in meeting the skills needs of our rapidly expanding economy. It's my strong intention to continue to promote the co-operation that has been developing between third-level institutions and industry." Last year, CAO applicants turned down certificate and diploma offers in significant numbers. While more than 50,000 offers of places were made, the final number of acceptances came to only 15,658. This compares with 17,644 the previous year.
The Minister said that the possibility of progressing from certificate to diploma to degree must be made clear to second-level students. "That's where Teastas and the National Qualifications framework comes into play. We must get rid of academic snobbery."
Education has responded rapidly to industry's need for technicians with 300 students beginning a new technician training course this month. More third-level places have also been provided for students applying through the central applications system.
A clearly enthusiastic Micheal Martin, describes the 18-month technician training course as "the most potentially interesting development to date." On July 11th last year, he announced a capital investment of £5 million to meet "emerging and critical skills demands in the high-technology area." Five days later, he announced the establishment of an education/industry task force to improve the supply of technicians for high-technology industries.
A further three months and the task force, chaired by Sean McDonagh, director of Dundalk RTC, announced a new programme which would lead to a national certificate in technology. There were in the region of 1,000 applicants and, from these, 300 potential technicians were identified.
This month these students are beginning their studies at seven regional technical colleges and two institutes of technology. The course will include a six-month industry placement.
There are a number of key aspects to this course, says Martin. "It is outside the CAO and draws on a wider pool of people. There is now some evidence that not everybody who goes through the CAO finishes their course." It may emerge that this is because they are not suited to the courses, he adds, and this may have implications for the Points Commission. "Industry itself was very much involved with the colleges on a local level. They contributed to the syllabus and there was joint recruitment of students. I think this will be the opening of a door to stronger partnership between education and industry." It's possible that there will be further recruitment to the 18-month course later this year.
The Minister says that it may also be possible to develop a skills package in the technician area within the Post Leaving Certificate sector. Already, this sector has put a two-year teleservices course in place in response to industry needs.
"We're getting very good feedback from industry and business about the qualifications and relevance of PLC graduates," he adds. Martin believes that the extension of maintenance grants to the PLC sector in 1998 will ensure that students in this sector are not disadvantaged compared with third-level students.
