The further education and training system is central to the delivery of skills across the country to boost national competitiveness and support inclusion. The Further Education and Training Act 2013 requires SOLAS to prepare a strategy for the provision of further education and training and submit it to the Minister for approval. SOLAS, in partnership with the Department, is progressing the development of the next strategy under these provisions, ensuring that it fully aligns with departmental and Government priorities. The process for developing the next strategy, the third national strategy for the sector, began last year. SOLAS held several consultation workshops and meetings with more than 800 individuals and stakeholder representatives across the country to identify emerging themes. Officials from the Department worked closely with SOLAS, attending the sectoral consultation workshops. In addition, SOLAS launched a public consultation in January 2025, which resulted in more than 70 submissions from a diverse group of stakeholders. At the moment, SOLAS is considering the feedback and emerging themes from its stakeholder engagements to inform a draft strategy. That will be submitted for consideration to the Department in the coming weeks. Once agreed, the strategy will be launched, subject to the Minister's approval in line with the legislation.

Sentiment score: 0.24

As background to the strategy, its implementation resulted in significant progress between 2014 and 2019 in the development of the FET sector within the overall education landscape. Of course, we are now looking to the future. The second strategy from 2020-24 set out the role of FET in a more collaborative and cohesive tertiary education system for Ireland. Now, we are looking at the 2025-29 strategy, the third strategy. In developing this strategy, there is an acknowledgement that the FET sector has undergone a significant transformation in the past five years. It is important that we continue with the trajectory in order that FET can be a pivotal driver of sustainable economic growth, workforce development and, particularly, lifelong learning.

Sentiment score: 0.21

It is very good news that Galway was one of two colleges given approval to proceed to the next step under the FET college of the future major projects fund. A total of 12 colleges have been earmarked and eight of them are progressing now. The Minister announced earlier this week that Galway was one of those eight colleges. Of course, the other four are on stream. Returning to the Deputy's contribution, it is important to say when we talk about this new FET strategy that it will endeavour to respond to the OECD skills strategy review. This highlights the need for a more balanced educational and skills system. The Deputy mentioned apprenticeships. The 16 ETBs are uniquely positioned within the tertiary education landscape to address those core immediate skills. As the Minister said, we were down yesterday at the Mount Lucas construction training centre with the modern methods of construction, MMC, accelerator platform. It was really good to see some of the positive things happening.

Sentiment score: 0.17

I thank the Deputy for raising this important question. My Department is actively progressing measures to expand training capacity in modern methods of construction, MMC, nationwide. We have quantified that using MMC could lead to a reduction of almost 10,000 in the number of additional workers required to meet domestic building and retrofitting targets to 2030, which is highly significant. Existing training capacity is being expanded through partners including SOLAS, Laois-Offaly Education and Training Board and Skillnet Ireland. New traineeships and micro-credentials are being developed and offsite manufacturing diplomas, short courses in sustainability and digital skills, and an MMC-specific portfolio of programmes are available. Along with the Minister, Deputy Lawless, I was delighted yesterday to launch a new digital platform, Skillnet MMC Accelerate, at Mount Lucas to support career progression and training navigation in this important area. A national demonstration park is under development at Mount Lucas. It will open later this year as a flagship destination for demonstration, specialist training and innovation. In parallel, the Department is finalising an MMC action plan. Responding to the expert group on future skills needs recommendations, this sets out 58 targeted actions across areas such as digital construction, certification, early learning engagement and new training provision. It has been developed with Government, industry and education partners. All of this work is supported by funding of €3.5 million in 2025.

Sentiment score: 0.30