Opinion: Irish obsession with third level is unhealthy

Over the past 50 years, we have become obsessed with the idea that third-level education is the way to achieve our economic destiny. The numbers going to college have ballooned from 11 per cent in 1965 to 69 per cent in 2011. Ireland now has the highest proportion of young people with third-level qualifications across the EU.

It is an impressive achievement, but there is a flip side. A recent report by the Higher Education Authority noted that 16 per cent of entrants to third level fail to progress to second year. This raises questions about the adequacy of careers guidance, but it also challenges us to reconsider the suitability of third level for a significant minority of school leavers.

Prosperity and social cohesion might well depend on a highly skilled workforce but, as research in Ireland by labour expert Dr John Sweeney shows, more than 50 per cent of the workforce in economies such as our own will still require medium-level skills.

Focusing exclusively on high-tech jobs requiring high-level qualifications might actually expose a proportion of our citizens to unemployment, poverty and exclusion.

That’s why the big skills challenge for Ireland is in the area of medium-to-low-level qualifications.

A significant proportion of school leavers choose to do third-level courses they are not suited to and inevitably drop out.

The extent to which this undermines the self-confidence of young people in their late teens goes largely unnoticed, but it has a huge cost to the individuals, their families and wider society.

Would it not be better if, on leaving school, these young people entered employment through an apprenticeship, and later on had the option of expanding their education options by progressing to a related course of study in higher education?

Unfortunately, for many years now, a significant proportion of our young people – and their parents – have been dazzled by what third-level education seems to promise.

The provision of clear pathways between apprenticeships and third-level studies would assist in changing these perceptions.

But this would require clear alignment between an expanded range of apprenticeships and the courses currently offered in institutes of technology, in particular.

Policymakers increasingly realise that any discussion of skills must go well beyond academic attainment. An ever-increasing number of reports stress employers’ demand for workers with strong occupational skills. Many of these skills cannot be acquired exclusively in the classroom.

Although surgeons, accountants, lawyers, policemen and aircraft pilots can only qualify by gaining hands-on experience in the workplace, it is often assumed that lower-level skills can be acquired in the classroom.

Overwhelming evidence

So why the apprenticeship model in particular? There is overwhelming evidence across the EU and beyond on how this model is delivering the kind of skills we need in the workforce in a way that suits young people with a wide range of abilities and aptitudes.

Countries with well-developed apprenticeships have considerably lower youth unemployment than the EU average. Apprenticeships are also attractive to young people and facilitate a smoother transition from learning to work by combining study and on-the-job experience.

The decision to expand the Irish apprenticeship programme and the launch of 25 new apprenticeships this year is cause for great optimism. However, maximising their potential will require serious capacity-building and sustained public and private investment.

The lessons learned from decades of experience in Europe indicate that businesses – especially small and medium-sized enterprises – need to be supported to host and train them.We must ensure the curriculum for apprenticeship programmes is responsive to changing skills needs and that there are clear routes to progress to third level.

Higher education should not be the be-all and end-all for many of our students. A reformed, quality-assured and well-resourced apprenticeship scheme has the potential to hugely improve national prosperity and cohesion.

But are we really committed to doing everything possible to ensure this?

Pat O’Mahony is education and research officer at Education and Training Boards Ireland