Further Education and Training - a solution to the skills shortage

Traditionally, third-level courses have been favoured by parents and students, however, a study conducted by the Higher Education Authority in 2018 has revealed that roughly 14% of nearly 5,800 first year students at third-level institutions do not go on to the second year of their course.

More and more students are opting for Further Education and Training courses, and this year more than 339,000 people are involved in 22,000 FET courses across Ireland. And we’re striving to increase that number even further!

This interesting article in The Irish Times discussed how FET has become a real alternative to Higher Education.

Recently the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit (SLMRU) at SOLAS has identified major skills shortages in science, engineering, ICT, business and finance, healthcare, and construction sectors in Ireland.

This is where Further Education and Training (FET) can step in and bridge the skills shortage gap, showing that there are real alternatives available to Higher Education.

Commenting in The Irish Times’ article, Andrew Brownlee, Executive Director, Strategy and Knowledge with SOLAS said: “It’s worth having a conversation about whether there is another option and whether there is a base of those school leavers that actually might be better suited to doing a further education and training course rather than a higher education course, even if that is a progression step into the latter.”

Education and Training Boards across Ireland aim to offer a wide range of alternative options for school-leavers, the unemployed and those looking to up-skill or re-join the workforce. Check out some of our Stories of students and graduates of FET courses to see what the plethora of career options out there through FET courses!