19th May 2014

The provision of courses to match skills needs of the economy are among the top priorities in a five-year strategy for the €800m-a-year further education and training sector.

The landmark strategy should bring formal structures to a sector with more than 200,000 learners for the first time. Launching the strategy developed by Solas, the authority set up to oversee the sector, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said further education and training (FET) has a vital role to play in ensuring people are able to find work and be paid for it.

“As our economy recovers, we need to ensure that people, particularly the unemployed, have the ‘job- ready’ skills needed to compete for an increasing number of new jobs coming on stream,” said Mr Quinn.

As well as skills needed for workers and economic development, other key goals include supporting inclusion of people with all abilities, meeting high quality standards, and planning and funding of FET provision based on the evidence of social and economic impact.

Full story here.