SOLAS Meeting

DCUs Further Education and Training Research Centre (FETRC) was recently involved in a benchmarking exercise in the Department of Education & Skills on behalf of SOLAS (An tSeirbhís Oideachais Leanúnaigh agus Scileanna) the new Further Education and Training Authority in Ireland.

Dr John Lalor represented FETRC at the SOLAS stakeholder workshop. The Further Education and Training Act 2013 has tasked SOLAS with developing a five-year strategy and implementation plan for the Further Education and Training Sector and to have it ready by the end of March 2014.  This is a historic initiative and SOLAS has engaged the Economic and Social Research Institute to assist in that regard.

SOLAS’ three-part consultation process is taking place as follows:

• Semi-structured interviews in order to identify the key challenges facing the sector over the next five years as well as the actions required to ensure the provision of 21st century high-quality further education and training programmes to jobseekers and other learners that is responsive to the needs of learners and the requirements of a changed and changing economy
• Benchmarking FET in Ireland against international best practice
• Workshops to validate the feedback from the interview process and the benchmarking exercise.

DCU's Further Education and Training Research Centre (FETRC) hopes to play an active role in helping SOLAS and the other agencies in the strategic reformation of the further education & training sector. The Centre aims to focus on the development of knowledge, functions and theories of practice – through an ‘observatory’ to identify best practice and emerging trends, conduct independent evaluation (in which area we are leaders) and provide academic perspective on policy. Post Graduate (EdD) student Fiona Croke, from DCU's School of Education, was also in attendance at this unique event.