TALKBACK:THE PROPOSED changes to the structure of FÁS have the potential to transform the educational and training landscape.
These changes could have a real impact on thousands of people, including those currently unemployed and school-leavers who are not going on to university.
Here’s the harsh reality: the structure of FÁS, the Post Leaving Cert Courses ( PLCs) and the Institutes of Technology (ITs) is broken beyond repair.
All three sectors offer overlapping courses, many of them totally irrelevant to the actual skills needs of our 21st century economy. Recent EU audits of FÁS expenditure, underlines the depth of the structural problems we face.
If the Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, has the courage to propose a restructuring of this entire sector she will be making a huge contribution to tackling the growing problem of long-term unemployment.
Restructuring this entire sector is a complex task of re-alignment, but it has the potential to create a whole new landscape of streamlined Vocational Education and Training (VET), in line with best international practice. The Minister does not have to travel further than our near neighbour Scotland, to see such a system in operation.
Typically, Scottish Further Education Colleges incorporate all of the functions of FÁS, the PLCs and the IT’s.
They offer the first two years of a four-year degree – students transfer to university for the last two years. Full-time courses are no longer than 16 hours per week, usually over two and a half days. This facilitates students who need to work or those who need work experience.
A huge barrier to implementing such a radical transformation of our VET sector will be the attitude of the teachers, lecturers, and trainers, currently employed within our training regime.
The response of the Teachers Union of Ireland to the Croke Park agreement does not bode well for the implementation of such a radical restructuring.
Those fortunate enough to have secure public service jobs in these very uncertain times must have the moral courage to accept major changes in their terms and conditions of employment for the greater good of our people and country.
If they dig their heals in and try to hold on to the current ineffective, out-of-date structure they are flying in the face of the will of the vast numbers of those who require more effective VET education and training – and the wider public who accept the need for radical changes within the public sector.
If we move to a consolidated, unified and coherent Irish VET sector, it would quickly lead to a regeneration of our local communities and our national economy. The choice lies with the trade union movement and its members.
Brian Mooney is a former president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors. He teaches at Oatlands College, Stillorgan, Dublin
