Ireland needs a comprehensive, well co-ordinated and resourced tertiary education system if we are to provide for the wide range of skills that our society and economy needs. The key to achieving this lies in creating a better balance between further education and training and higher education – an outcome that may require radical action.
But there are also strong cultural reasons which need to be acknowledged and dealt with if FET is to achieve parity with higher education as a destination of choice for students. FET must become a central player in our education and training system, on equal terms with HE and we need to give more attention to the role FET can play providing ongoing learning opportunities for people seeking to re-enter the workforce and for those seeking training and retraining over their active lives.
The Solas strategy, Future FET, sets out a number of actions to bring FET centre stage with the laudable objective of making FET “loud and proud”. They include addressing the lack of exposure of second-level students to FET with tasters of vocational courses; transition year apprenticeship tasters and, given the centrality of the CAO as the major focal point for school leavers, ensuring that FET is given an equal standing with HE.
More effective career guidance in schools, with teachers and guidance counsellors well informed of the potential of FET, and how to communicate that to students, would ensure better informed choices and overcome biases.
Yes.
Better career guidance would be more effective. People go to college and drop out because their chosen area of study doesn't suit them. Makes people feel like they've failed when in reality they just hadn't the information necessary to make the correct choice.
Pulling up the drawbridge?
And create scarcity in order to pump up the price of places also the other effect of making it an elite carreer option , yea sounds great
Not if the caption/headline above is any indication.
Why not start with adapting the taught Education Curriculum in Kindergarten upwards, only provide 'must know' ENGLISH, MATHS, Languages, IT, Computing+ COMPETITIVE DAILY LIFE survival skills customised to jobs available in the taught locations