Debate contribution: Skills Agenda: Update

Debate contribution by Mr Conor Murphy on 2 July 2024.

MLA

Mr Conor Murphy

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

2 July 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statements

Heading

Skills Agenda: Update

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4528869

Read the official Assembly record

Text

As I said, we have been making significant progress on Magee. There is a tendency among some sectors in Derry to downplay that progress. I do not understand that. Nonetheless, we have been making significant progress. The 150 students who came in last year were funded at risk by Ulster University, and, to me, that demonstrates the university's commitment to growth and expansion at Magee.

That cost has now been covered by us, and it will allow for the recruitment of 500 students in total, including those who were taken in at risk. We have to be clear about that. The intention is to ramp that up. Where those students will go will depend on the clearing process over the summer. That will take place in the normal way when there is recruitment to universities.

It is our clear intention and the clear intention of the task force, which met yesterday and continues to meet regularly, to look at the entirety of the requirements to get us to the 10,000 number. We are not setting the level of recruitment at a pace year by year. That has not been the case, and it will not be the case. Our intention is to get as quickly as possible to that Executive commitment in 'New Decade, New Approach' (NDNA) of 10,000 students. The task force is working diligently to assist us in that. Ulster University is playing its part. As I said, it took students at risk. We are playing our part, in that we provided the financial cover for it to do that and to increase that again, and we will continue to do that in the time ahead. That is widely welcomed across most sections of society in the north-west, and I encourage everybody to get their shoulder behind that wheel and to drive the project forward.

The Member is correct that SKILL UP has been popular and accessible, and the feedback has supported that. It got the lion's share of the funding available to go into skills. We look forward to getting more detail on the number of people who will join that and the types of course. There is something like 300 courses that people can access. We are pleased to be able to continue that. In relation to the 50 places, we have made funding available, but there is significant research that Queen's and other institutions have done on that accessibility issue. I will be happy to get feedback from the university and provide it to the Member on the numbers and the regions that it expects that intake to come from.

There are a number of issues where alignment and removal of barriers would be welcome. In years gone by, a significantly higher number of students were accessing universities North and South from either part of the island. Some work has been undertaken on the leaving cert and A-level equivalence that is required in respect of the award of points to secure entry, but there is more to do. There is sometimes a language requirement in relation to entry because of the nature of the leaving cert, where there is a broader range of subjects. Again, that acts as a barrier. Information is key. We are not getting that distribution of information on both sides of the border in respect of access to university. There are obviously higher living costs in Dublin, which puts off some applicants. There is a higher rate of student support for people attending London, where living costs are high, and we want to see if something comparable could be put in place for students in Dublin. There are a range of issues. Some work has already been undertaken. I have had dialogue with the previous Minister responsible, who is now the Taoiseach, but I have not had dialogue with the new Minister responsible, Patrick O'Donovan. We are very much intent on bringing forward that work to remove the barriers.

Both Ministers have come together with our officials. We have agreed that, while the Careers Service is provided from the Department for the Economy and schools are the primary deliverer of that, we are concerned that there is inconsistency in its delivery. There is not, perhaps, consistency in making sure that young people, particularly in the 14- to 15-year-old bracket when they get careers advice, are fully aware of the range of pathways available to them in continuing their studies. We want to make sure that that advice is consistent and is provided consistently and that the full range of information is there. As a first area of work, the Minister of Education and I have agreed that we will task officials with making sure that not only is that advice there but that, when you get into the education sector, that advice is provided consistently. It is important, particularly at a time when a cost-of-living crisis means that students accessing a university have the potential of taking on debt, that people are aware that a much broader range of opportunities are available to them and that a lot of those can involve working and learning at the same time and not necessarily incurring that debt. We just want to make sure that people are aware of that. The nature of employment is clearly changing very rapidly. Advice is being given to 14-year-olds now, but, in some cases, we do not know the types of jobs that will be available when they enter the labour market. We need to make sure that the advice is as up to date as possible and is consistent.

The funding for Coleraine will come in under the UU's allocation, and the UU is committed to all of its campuses to make sure that there is continued growth. There was a specific NDNA commitment in relation to the Magee campus; it is my responsibility to lead delivery on that, but it is an Executive-wide responsibility. We want to see availability on all campuses from UU, and it has stated many times that it is committed to the continued development of the Coleraine campus.

The task force continues to meet regularly. I think that it met yesterday, and it will continue to meet over the summer. Some of the areas that it is looking at, I am told, include accommodation and the relationship between the university, which is expanding and will continue to expand, and the residents around it to make sure that Magee is a good neighbour. There are precedents in that regard in Belfast in how universities have interacted with local communities. There were community representatives at the last task force meeting having those discussions. The task force is also looking at the issue of transportation for students. There has been dialogue between the task force and Translink to make sure that the issues of the increased numbers of students and transport requirements are identified early and action is taken to address those. There is a range of work. The group has been meeting and been proactive. It has been involving the community in its discussions. It is off to an excellent start, and we look forward to continuing to support it to get that outcome of 10,000 students at Magee.

Like most elected representatives of any experience here, we will know of and will have met people in that situation in our constituencies. When they reach the age of 19, they are no longer the responsibility of the Department of Education or further or higher education and effectively fall off the edge of a cliff from the system, and there is little provision for them. We are committed to trying to address that. The treatment of those young people has been a problem and an inequality for far too long. If we can do anything in this institution, it should be to provide services for people who need them most. That should be our ambition. I am committed to working to find a resolution. I had a discussion with Alma a week or two ago. I am sure that all of us are familiar with the issue. I do not doubt that we have all had it brought to our constituency offices at some stage or another. A resolution will require collaborative work. Some responsibilities will fall to the Department for Communities; some to the Department of Health. We cannot allow it to be a silo issue. That would prevent us from dealing with a critical equality issue for young people. We are very committed, and I have asked officials to look at this to see whether there are measures that can be taken in the interim and, if it requires legislation, to consider how we can progress that legislation at the earliest possible opportunity. If legislation is required, the ambition is to have it done in this mandate.

I would attribute the decline to, first, financial issues. The fact is that support for universities has been reduced year-on-year, so it has been difficult to increase numbers. As I said, the level of support for students who come from households that have a low income has remained static because our budgets have been under pressure for so long. That makes university inaccessible for a lot of people, and that has a detrimental impact on our economy. It means that the number of people coming out with qualifications reduces. That is the consequence of 14 of years of austerity: rather than growing the economy, we end up shrinking the economy because we are not investing in the necessary skills and education for people. We have limited finances, and, of course, the Executive have set themselves a priority, which is supported by the whole House, to engage on getting a proper financial arrangement with the British Government, one that recognises our level of need. Clearly, this is but one statistic that reflects a deterioration of investment in public services. It has consequences for individuals and for our economic growth.

As I said, some of the students were taken at risk in last year's intake. Ulster University covered those in the hope and anticipation that the Department would provide the finances for that eventually. As I said, that, to me, demonstrates its commitment to Magee. It also demonstrates our commitment, in that we found the finances to support that and found further finances for additional students. I cannot specify exactly where the students will go, but, over the summer, we will ask the university to give us some figures on where that intake is going. A clearing process goes on over the summer for applications to other institutions: who eventually ends up where and what courses they take. We are happy to provide that information to the Member over the summer as it becomes available from Ulster University.

1,800 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:56 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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