Gerard Walker is Senior Policy advisor within ForFás. He is responsible for project management, research and policy support to the Expert Group on Future skills needs. Forfás is the government group which provides policy advice on enterprise, trade, science, technology and innovation.
Gerard spoke about a national vision of Ireland in 2020; possessing a well educated and highly skilled population which contributes to a competitive, innovation-driven, knowledge based, participative and inclusive society. Within the current workforce, an additional 500,000 people need to be upskilled through either education or training.
He also mentioned that increased emphasis needs to be placed on generic skills like:
· Basic/Fundamental skills such as using information Technology, literacy, using numbers.
· People related skills such as communication, interpersonal, team working, customer-service skills; and
· Conceptual skills such as collecting and organising information, problem solving, planning and organising learning to learn skills, motivation and creativity skills.
There are challenges for the government, Education and Training providers and Employers
Some of the challenges for Education and Training providers:
1. Provision of Education and Training to be flexible and responsive and reflect the needs of individuals and enterprise.
2. Develop suitable mechanisms for interaction between enterprise and education providers.
3. Rapid spread of emerging skills and technologies-effect on sectors and occupations-need to ensure inclusive E-inclusion learning.
4. Emphasis on careers guidance and dissemination labour market information.
Within the formal education system retention rates to leaving certificate need to reach 90% (current rate 82%) by 2020. The progression rate from second to third level should increase to 72% (current rate 55%). In 2020, 94% of thepopulation aged 20-24 should have a second level qualification (current rate 86%).
Throughout his presentation he emphasised the need to ensure that those in the workforce and society have the skills to take advantage of these changes in the labour force. Furthermore, ICT skills are an integral part of the knowledge based economy and their promotion is important. They are skills which are workplace requirement at all levels-higher professional, manufacturing, service sector and administrative positions. ICT is been used to modernise on-line services for citizens, such as issuing passports, birth certificates and payment of road taxes etc. E-business is a growing area, with an increasing level of services and goods been purchased over the internet.
This advance of ICT means that it is important to gain generic-basic ICT Literacy in the use of the most common PC application and use of the Internet. It is also important that ICT skills are developed in late adopters in the information Society. Computer literacy is as necessary today as where reading and writing skills in the previous decade.
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Feedback after the presentation.....
-Educational and Training needs to respond to changing economic needs
-Address the issue of early school leavers. According to the socio-economic and demographic profile of Limerick City and suburbs[1], based on the 2006 Census of Population. Just under two-thirds of the population in the Limerick City area (over the age of 15) has at least an upper second level education (i.e. Leaving Certificate or equivalent) or higher. However, for one fifth of the population (over the age of 15), their highest level of education is the Junior Certification or equivalent, while 16% have just a primary level education. Just under 1% reported that they have no formal education.
-Structures based on traditional model of education
-One billion euro spent on training and education each year. How much has informal learning received, what is education and training sector still in need of huge re structure and changes?
-Investment needed in training personnel in early childhood (leavers)
-Are there groups nationally working on the ground that community workers in Limerick could connect with?
-One billion euro spent on training and education each year. How much has informal learning received, what is education and training sector still in need of huge re structure and changes?
-Investment needed in training personnel in early childhood (leavers)
-Are there groups nationally working on the ground that community workers in Limerick could connect with?
-We need to fund E&T strategies-training vouchers, individual training accounts
-Where will money come from in terms of upskilling?
-Is there a gender divide in E&T, yes but IT has changed all that.
-2020-'How do you change perceptions of ‘the value of education.' Attitudes shift when you expose people over a period of time to what education has to offer. In disadvantaged areas it is firstly important to recognise where people are coming from.
-Look at non- formal education approach
-Little money been spent in Ireland into innovation in informal learning.
-Is there a problem with measuring informal learning success?
-Is the solution in the learning-tutor make assessment invisible!
-2020-'How do you change perceptions of ‘the value of education.' Attitudes shift when you expose people over a period of time to what education has to offer. In disadvantaged areas it is firstly important to recognise where people are coming from.
-Look at non- formal education approach
-Little money been spent in Ireland into innovation in informal learning.
-Is there a problem with measuring informal learning success?
-Is the solution in the learning-tutor make assessment invisible!
2 comments:
Very informative session. As in ICT, it appears that the challenge is to convince those who have, or are at risk of becoming, disengaged from education of the value to them of life-long learning whether formal or informal.
Techfast 2 - 16/5/08 - Future Skills Needs & Inclusion
Hi Elaine, Brendan & Gerard, well done on another challenging breakfast !
The 2020 skills targets are very challenging but essential for all our futures. While most of the targets will have to be met by the “top down” formal education and training agencies, there will be a huge need for community-driven more informal “bottom-up” initiatives, particularly focusing on core life-skills and competencies rather than academic attainment.
For disadvantaged communities in particular, we have to start from where people are at – we must make them aware that literacy and ICT-use are core life skills that are essential to give them options and opportunities in their lives. User centered inclusive ICT can greatly help in that both, for the “know what” and “know how”.
Perhaps the Limerick ICT Group and other community groups can focus on the 300,000 “newly participating” people that will be in the 2.4m workforce in 2020. Maybe community groups across the country should target to provide half of the 300,000 and be funded to do so !
It was clear from the discussion that there is excellent work being done on the ground, that is not getting the funding or recognition that it requires. I’m sure the same is true for many community groups across the country. Perhaps you might set up an interactive/collaborative web forum to share and collaborate in that work, and lobby for adequate financial and other support.
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