The Minister of Education has warned Irish colleges to learn from the conclusion of the British Dearing Report on Higher Education that a whole level of vocational provision was lost in the last 10 years "by institutions continually seeking what they perceived to be greater status".
Mr Martin told an education management conference in TCD there was now "an acute shortage of such courses in Britain and major investment is required to replace them. This is a mistake which we could easily make, and it would have major implications for our ability to train our young people in areas of rapidly expanding employment opportunities".