14. Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to report on the work of officials within his Department on the new further education and training strategy in collaboration with SOLAS following the conclusion of its public consultation earlier this year. [25568/25]

Sentiment score: 0.13

This morning I wish to ask the Minister about the work of the officials in his Department on the new further education and training strategy in collaboration with SOLAS, particularly following the completions of its public consultation earlier this year.

Sentiment score: 0.40

I welcome the clarity that the Minister of State provided regarding the 800 individual meetings and 70 submissions to the public consultation. I look forward to hearing more details about that over the coming weeks as that is progressed. One reason I am raising this issue is the importance of the apprenticeship sector, which this public consultation is dealing with. We have done quite well in raising the numbers from 7,000 registrations to 30,000 registrations. I want to see this momentum continued and hence I am looking forward to the feedback in this consultation.

Sentiment score: 0.29

I welcome the approach of a collaborative strategy. It is worthwhile. All the actors and relevant stakeholders in our third level and further education sector are critical to make this work and create consistencies across the sector. I especially appreciate and welcome the focus on lifelong learning. I also welcome the focus on workforce transformation because we are operating in a transformative world. We have had debates concerning AI and the resources focused on it. This aspect will impact all sectors of our society, even the apprenticeship sector, where something will have to be included in this regard.

Sentiment score: 0.33