FETRC members present on FET related issues at ESAI

Dr Jane O’Kelly, Dr John Lalor, Dr Justin Rami, Dr Peter Tiernan, Dr Francesca Lorenzi from FETRC presented a paper entitled,

‘Cascading support from practitioners to learners in FET: learning difficulties and other issues’. The paper related to supporting ET learning with learning difficulties within the FET sector in Ireland. In Ireland, the broad range of education and training programmes provide education and training opportunities for adults and young people preparing for higher education, training for employment, changing career, improving literacy and numeracy skills and engaging in lifelong learning. The sector supports communities and individuals who wish to change and improve their lives through education and training. The complexity of reasons for engaging with the sector introduces an array of learner background and life experience that can include the impact of difficult socio-economic conditions, disability, learning difficulties, early school leaving, addiction, offenders in prison or ex-offenders. Between 2010 and 2012, the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, analysed vocational education and training policies and practices in 26 countries from the perspective of learners with special educational needs (SEN) and/or disabilities. The analysis focused on ‘what works’ in VET for learners with SEN and/or disabilities, ‘why it works’ and ‘how it works’ (2013, p.1). Factors included the need for: educational staff to receive sufficient support in order to ensure and safeguard a learner-centred approach; multi-disciplinary teams are established that include all professionals involved in VET, have clear roles, adopt a teamwork approach and co-operate well with other services; and VET settings are flexible and responsive to learners’ needs allowing different timeframes for completion and flexible pathways (p.4). The aim of this research is to examine the opinion and experience of FET stakeholders both nationally and internationally on the instance of learning difficulties in the learning environment and to examine how practitioners developed their own learning to assist and support learners. A range of Irish stakeholders in FET were interviewed and practitioners across the EU were surveyed through purposive (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2011, p. 156) and snowball-sampling (p.158) within EU VET and international networks. The research found that the experiences of practitioners in vocational education and training and adult education were consistent across countries and diverse systems with practitioners in the majority relying on informal support from colleagues and own research to supplement their knowledge. Practitioners also cited their own professional experience as their main learning support for coping with learners in need.

Justin Rami & John Lalor from FETRC also presented another paper related to FET in Ireland entitled

‘Squaring the Circle’ takes a look at how policy development in Further Education and Training in Ireland has come about’The paper looked at defining further and vocational education and further and vocational training has at best been tricky. The term FET (Further Education & Training) in Ireland is used as the catch-all conception of Further Education, Vocational Education and Vocational Education and Training by those that work in or access its services and by society as a whole. Though FET also occurs in some tertiary educational environments, the FET sector is regarded by stakeholders as being less clearly defined and of lower perceived status than Higher Education (HE) (McGuinness, S. et al, 2014). This echoes wider social norms but was also seen as relating to the diversity of FET in terms of ‘provision and perceptions of current provision’ (ibid). The term FET is often used interchangeably with VET, depending on the perspective. There is no legal definition for ‘further education and training’, ‘initial vocational education and training’ or ‘continuing vocational education and training’ in Ireland. There are legal definitions for vocational education and then separately for vocational training. The most recent legislation, which marked the establishment of the (National Further Education & Training Authority) SOLAS and the ETBs, was in 2013 and covered FET but not VET specifically. Education and Training in Ireland is not only about employability, it is also concerned with the key concept of lifelong learning. It is seen both in policy and structural terms as being one of the main pillars essential to the building and maintaining of a highly skilled workforce operating within a knowledge society (Harper & Fox, 2003). With the introduction of SOLAS in 2013 came a drive to join the ‘T’ of training with the ‘FE’ of Education. One of SOLAS’s missions is to radically enhance the image of further/vocational education and training amongst Ireland’s school leavers and their parents/guardians and career guidance professionals (SOLAS 2014, p.12). This paper highlights the blurring of lines between ‘Training’ and ‘Education’ and asks if SOLAS are succeeding with this mission. The paper discusses this in the context of Further and or Vocational Education and Training and concludes with the question of whether we should even try to ‘square the circle'?