2026-07-02

89. Deputy Tony McCormack asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the progress being made in expanding lifelong learning opportunities to support people in upskilling and reskilling throughout their working lives; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50028/26]

We are all very aware of what is happening in the AI space and the rapid pace it is taking over our lives, both at home and in businesses. What progress is being made in expanding lifelong learning opportunities to support people in upskilling and reskilling throughout their working lives? I am specifically referencing AI and the business requirements and businesses needs companies have at the moment.

I thank the Deputy very much for raising this important issue. Just this morning before I came into the House, I attended an event in the Accenture offices in Dublin, sponsored by IBEC, where it had a conversation on AI and future skills needs. It was a wide-ranging conversation. It has published a report. It is publicly available. I was attending the launch of that report but there was also a panel discussion on the impact of AI on the workforce and on employers and employees. There was a general finding that while many SMEs are aware of the challenges and opportunities it provides, they may not necessarily have confidence that they have the capacity to take it on at the moment. That is something I am determined to address. The expansion of lifelong learning opportunities is a central priority for me and the Department. Most people accept and agree it is not just about the one point in life education, when a person comes out of school or college, but it is about ongoing lifelong learning, as the Deputy rightly raised in his question. We are making significant and sustained investment across a number of initiatives to make sure workers, jobseekers and employers have access to flexible high-quality learning opportunities. Skillnet Ireland plays a big part in that in terms of enterprise-led upskilling. Springboard+ and MicroCreds are two programmes I have for learning in the workforce and learning while one earns. The skills to advance programme provides further as well. I recently committed another €4 million to short MicroCreds courses employees can take while in work. They control those now so there are subsidised voucher schemes for short-cycle courses that are provided through the Springboard+ programme. We then have the new aiready.ie website, which I launched about six weeks ago. As of this morning, 7,500 users had signed up to that and were using it on a regular basis. The intention of that platform is to continue to drive that on, to add content and to add to it. It started off as an entry-level demystifying exercise to take away the fear of AI and promote it, but the intention is that the website will continue to grow to become a more advanced user portal, including gateways to other courses, such as the likes the ETBs are offering, in that space as well.

I commend the Minister and his Department on the priority they have placed on lifelong learning. It is something we should be very proud of. We now have the highest level of third level education attainment in the European Union, with over 65% of young adults holding a third level qualification. We are also performing strongly in the lifelong learning ranking, at sixth in the European Union for adult participation. However, while sixth is a strong position, we should always aim to be number one. As technology evolves and careers become more dynamic, lifelong learning is no longer simply an education issue; it is becoming an economic necessity. When I say that, I am talking about the business requirements and the jobs that will be lost. We have to be very cognisant of the opportunities that are there with AI but also be willing to make sure we achieve and keep the jobs we have already in the economy.

We will see a period of change and of flux. There are challenges but there are also opportunities. Some jobs may well be lost but other jobs will be created, including different types of jobs. An example was given during the conversation this morning that when the Excel spreadsheet came into widespread use about 25 years ago, there were predictions there would be no more accountants and that they would become obsolete as a profession. In fact, there are probably more of them and more accounting firms than ever. What accountants have done is move up the value chain in terms of offering strategic financial advice as opposed to being calculators. My own view is that as technology continues to evolve, we as a training system and State must remain ahead of and on top to it and embrace it in some cases. One initiative I recently launched which may be of interest to the Deputy is the national skills round tables. I am bringing together employers, employees and the training agencies in different sectors to ask what they need from the training agency, how technological change impacts them and how other developments and demographics impact them. We had a construction skills round table in UCD recently. I had a technological round table event last week at the Vodafone office. Later this month, I will bring together professional services including accounting, legal and consultancy-type firms to ask what changes they are seeing in their workforce and how the training system education systems can respond to that proactively.

One of Ireland's greatest competitive advantages has always been the quality of the people. Increasingly, however, international investors are looking at not only educational attainment but how quickly a country's workforce can adapt to technological changes and acquire new skills. With AI, as we talked about earlier, transforming almost every sector of our economy, lifelong learning is becoming an increasingly important factor in attracting and retaining foreign direct investment. Countries that can rapidly upskill and reskill their workforce will have a significant competitive advantage and I strongly support the work the Minister is doing in this area. Will he outline how his Department is working with employers, higher education institutions and enterprise agencies to strengthen Ireland's culture of lifelong learning and ensure we will remain one of the most attractive locations in Europe for investment now and in the years ahead?

A bit of shorthand I often use, and I know a number of State agencies also use, to talk about the pace of change is the four Ds - digitalisation, decarbonisation, demographics and deglobalisation. All four of these things are happening quickly and we are living in a fast-changing world. The Deputy is right that we need to be adaptable and flexible. Some of the ways in which we are responding to that include, as I mentioned, the skills round tables in which I am engaging, where each month I do a different sectoral dive with employers and training agencies around the table to understand their needs. We also have the national skills council, which was created last year and is headed up by Dr. Kevin Marshall. A number of my officials are involved in it. It looks at the skills needs that are emerging. We have a skills observatory, which is effectively a database that provides real-time information about skills gaps, skills needs and what types of vacancies there are. There are some new occupations coming into being and some occupations that perhaps are no longer as much in demand. To get ahead of that, we need to ask if we have the people, and in many cases it is the same people, who can be skilled up for those. I mentioned the AI ready programme. We are also exploring a number of national skills academies, which are sector-specific partnerships between colleges, employers and industries to make sure we can provide the type of training in real time that they and their industries need.