Stephen Farry
North Down · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“Speaking for a party that has a longer pedigree in advocating a public inquiry than both the DUP and Sinn Féin, I nonetheless welcome this announcement, despite the torturous path that we have had and, indeed, the missed opportunities.”
“The first was a reform of the petition of concern to take it back to the original intent when it was designed in 1998. It was clear at that stage that Arlene Foster banged the table and said, "No, never. We are not doing that. That is a way whereby we are going to have to fold on equal marriage: it's not happening".”
“<BR /> <BR />The main points that I make concern the substance of the order. There are probably three aspects that the Minister needs to address properly before the Assembly, and they really relate to what other options he has.”
“That raises the question of why they want to go as far as 2022, especially when I am not sure — I would welcome any clarification to the contrary on it — that there has been formal Executive approval of this.”
“<BR /> <BR />There are three major substantive issues that I do not believe have been properly aired on this: VAT; European Commission infraction proceedings; and, most important, the opportunity foregone to revisit the classification of Northern Ireland Water and the ability, through a separate water charge, to allow it to borrow commerc…”
“While my party was supportive of the Good Friday Agreement back in 1998, at that time, we expressed some reservations around the very detailed nature of the proposals and how those could, in due course, destabilise Northern Ireland and prevent us from realising our full potential. We have been very much vindicated in that analysis.”
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“<BR /> <BR />To further highlight gender in STEM, the coordinator has worked with the three main daily newspapers and STEM businesses to produce four 24-page supplements at crucial decision-making times of the school year. Those supplements, which have been universally well received, have highlighted the world-class opportunities available in the STEM companies across Northern Ireland and have featured many female role models in STEM. <BR /> <BR />My Department also takes forward opportunities to encourage more females to study and pursue careers in STEM. For example, I am providing funding of over £70,000 through the skills collaboration fund for the Women in STEM — Upskill to Compete project. The aim of that project is to address the gender imbalance that exists within the advanced manufacturing and engineering services sector.”
“Organisations that have signed up to date include Allstate; Atkins; Asidua; Bombardier Aerospace; Intel; Liberty IT; Magellan Aerospace; Michelin; Moy Park; NACCO; Schrader; Seagate; Ulster University; Queen's University; and the Open University. That is almost a who's who of the major STEM employers in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />The coordinator has also established a STEM employers' equality network to help employers to benchmark their practice against the 22 good practice guidelines and to identify areas of further development that they would like to support. The sharing of existing good practice by the STEM organisations is integral to the network.”
“<BR /> <BR />The STEM CEO charter, which enables STEM organisations to demonstrate their commitment to equal opportunity for women in their employment, recently had its thirty-seventh signature company or organisation.”
“<BR /> <BR />Recommendation 4 of the STEM strategy, which falls under the responsibility of business to take forward, is to address gender bias. In November 2012, to help business take forward that and other relevant recommendations, my Department funded the seconded post of STEM business coordinator. Significant progress has been made by the coordinator in the area of gender balance, in partnership with my Department and the Equality Commission. In November 2013, a report entitled ‘Addressing Gender Balance – Reaping the Gender Dividend in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)’ was launched. The report demonstrates the business case for gender diversity and contains several tools to help business engage with the issue, including a STEM CEO charter, good practice guidelines and case studies.”
“Part of that guidance involves the use of labour market information, which can demonstrate the potential benefits of STEM subjects and raise awareness of opportunities in STEM and growth sectors. The Careers Service recently hosted four careers information sessions specifically for parents of young people facing career decisions, including subject choices at GCSE and post-16 and post-18 options. Part of each session was dedicated to providing an overview of STEM and other growth sectors. Through an industry placement scheme, careers advisers spend time with employers in STEM sectors, giving advisers first-hand experience of working in STEM areas. The scheme was piloted in 2013 and, after its success, it was agreed to run the scheme on an annual basis as a key element of careers advisers’ continuous professional development.”
“That has included continued focus on funding for successful campaigns such as Bring IT On and Tasty Careers, and the establishment of innovative academies in areas such as data analytics and cloud computing. DEL was also the largest funder of the inaugural Northern Ireland Science Festival in February 2015, which promoted science through over 100 hands-on events to all age groups. The festival had quadruple the expected audience figures and a total social media reach of over four million people. <BR /> <BR />The Careers Service also plays an active role in encouraging the uptake of STEM subjects and raising awareness of current and future job opportunities in STEM sectors. Careers advisers promote impartial careers advice to young people at key decision points in their careers.”
“<BR /> <BR />I have also recently launched a student finance consultation on support for part-time and postgraduate students, who, under current arrangements, largely have to finance their studies themselves. The consultation considers a range of options to better support those students through the student loan system, some of which are expressly focused on students in economically relevant subject areas. <BR /> <BR />The Department has led on the production and implementation of the STEM strategy and continues to take forward activities and initiatives to promote the uptake of STEM subjects and careers to young people in Northern Ireland.”
“From 2015-16 onwards, I will be asking our universities to submit outcome plans, outlining how they intend to contribute towards the key strategic aims of the Department and the wider Executive in return for our investment. Among those strategic aims will be outcomes pertaining to the provision of STEM subjects. <BR /> <BR />Under my Department’s new system for apprenticeships, apprenticeships will span right up to the PhD level. Students will have the opportunity to combine degree-level study with paid employment in a range of sectors, with a focus on those sectors most important to our economic growth. A range of pilot apprenticeships at the higher levels are already in place in many STEM areas, such as computing, software development and engineering.”
“In the current academic year, my Department has supported 90 tuition fee scholarships for master's students in a number of STEM areas at Queen’s and Ulster University. <BR /> <BR />In the current financial year, my Department is already facing unprecedented levels of budget reductions, and the indications are that finances will continue to be constrained during the next Assembly term. Indeed, further in-year reductions have appeared on the radar for this year. I will continue to call for the Executive to increase their investment in the provision of skills and, in particular, in STEM subjects, and will also seek to be more creative with the resources that we have. <BR /> <BR />At the moment, our universities are funded for their teaching based in the main on what they provide rather than on what they achieve.”
“Retaining graduates in Northern Ireland therefore depends on the availability of high-quality and sustainable employment opportunities locally. This relies on the success of our indigenous companies and also on attracting new investment to Northern Ireland. Retention problems do not begin with graduation. Every year, some 30% of our students pursue their higher education in other parts of the UK, and the majority do not return to Northern Ireland when they finish their studies. With very few students coming the other way, Northern Ireland is the only net exporter of students in the UK. In order to continue the pipeline, we often have to retrain those who have not studied STEM degrees. Conversion master's courses are particularly useful vehicles for graduates to upskill and reskill in areas more relevant to the economy.”
“<BR /> <BR />Our efforts have revolved around more than simply funding additional places and awards. Our universities and colleges are also committed to rebalancing their existing provision in favour of more economically relevant subject areas. We are working towards a goal of having at least 22% of all qualifiers from our higher education institutions in narrow STEM subjects by 2020, from a current baseline of 18% in 2008. Good progress has been made to date, with almost 21% of all qualifiers in the 2013-14 academic year in narrow STEM areas. <BR /> <BR />Of course, there is little point in investing in the provision of higher-level skills in Northern Ireland if our graduates then leave to contribute to economies elsewhere.”
“Nonetheless, both universities have committed to protecting narrow STEM places despite those budget pressures. <BR /> <BR />Similarly, significant progress has been made in supporting an increase in provision in economically relevant subjects at postgraduate level. In the past two years, my Department has supported an additional 234 postgraduate awards on top of a baseline of 495. All additional awards have been reserved for economically relevant subject areas, mainly STEM subjects, and I made the commitment, in my Department’s higher education strategy, to reach 1,000 awards by 2020. Though it is disappointing that, as a result of the Budget settlement, we will not now be able to build further on these increases next year, I have, nonetheless, ensured that the current number of postgraduate awards will be maintained.”
“Funding for an additional 700 full-time undergraduate places, specifically in STEM areas, was made available as a commitment under the last Programme for Government. To date, my Department has been able to exceed that target twofold, with over 1,400 additional places made available over the last three academic years: just over 1,000 in the universities and 353 in the FE colleges. <BR /> <BR />It is regrettable that we will not be able to build on those achievements in the incoming academic year. I was to fund a further 168 STEM undergraduate places in the 2015-16 academic year, but I am not now in a position to do that, for obvious reasons. Indeed, we are expecting to see significant reductions in student places as a result of the Budget situation.”
“Recent forecasting also demonstrates that, in a lower corporation tax environment, the demand for those skills will intensify ever further. Potential investors will be attracted to Northern Ireland, not for our attractive tax structures but, first and foremost, for our people and their skills. Under that scenario, the demand for STEM skills is forecast to account for 28% of total higher-level skills demand. <BR /> <BR />Skills provision, with a major focus on STEM, is now the most crucial component of our investment narrative. The business community, the education sector and my Department will all have a fundamental role to play if we are to achieve our STEM aspirations. A range of measures has been undertaken to promote STEM during this Assembly term by the wider Executive and through the efforts of my Department.”
“The skills strategy 'Success through Skills — Transforming Futures' and the STEM strategy, 'Success through STEM' both highlight the need to increase the number of people with high-level skills and those who qualify from graduate- and postgraduate-level courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the STEM subjects. <BR /> <BR />These will be essential if we are to achieve our economic aspirations of export-led economic growth. The strategies examine the skills we will need in the future to grow the Northern Ireland economy and highlight the increased demand for STEM skills. If we are to ensure a steady pipeline of STEM skills for the future, it is essential that our young people are encouraged to study STEM subjects at school, college and university.”
“Thirdly, we have the deadlock around Stormont House and welfare. What we had in Northern Ireland was a deal around welfare that provided a degree of protection for our local citizens that is above and beyond what is on offer elsewhere in the UK. <BR /> <BR />The choice is not between some idealised version of welfare that we cannot afford and what is currently on the table; the choice is between what was negotiated at Stormont Castle and the full-blown version coming from London, either imposed directly over our heads or through some sort of version of direct rule. I, for one, want to avoid a situation where we are simply being handed the Tory cuts on a plate, but I am afraid that the approach that the Member's party is taking is inevitably leading to a situation where that will be the case.”
“There are probably three elements to why we are in this particular difficulty. First, we have the situation with the cuts to the block grant from the UK Government; but it is what it is. The Conservative Party has been elected for better or worse; worse, in my opinion, but it is there and will be there for the next five years. That is the reality that we have to deal with on where we get our money, because we do not have the tax base to do anything differently in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />Frankly, what we are doing around current budget cuts is setting us further back from becoming self-sustaining as an economy rather than helping the situation. We also have structural difficulties in our budgets around the cost of division, which the Member's party is not particularly minded to address.”
“One of the key areas is giving them a ladder to escape poverty and deprivation, and one of the best ways out of poverty and deprivation is through education. That applies to investing in early years education as much as it does to the provision of further and higher education and training and employment opportunities. If the Member has that aspiration, I suggest that the solution lies with his party and others providing leadership on those challenging issues.”
“Oh, I suspect that the Minister is meant to walk into this one. The answer again lies in the fact that we do not have political consensus on the delivery of the Stormont Castle and Stormont House agreements and welfare reform. Until we have that, we will have a situation in which we are disinvesting in further and higher education and denying opportunities to students, both in their ability to finance their studies and their opportunities to go to college or university in the first place. We will see an impact on people's lives. <BR /> <BR />We hear all this talk about the importance of protecting the most vulnerable in society, but there is a whole host of ways that we support and help the most vulnerable.”
“I will say two things. At a departmental level, we are very keen to work with all businesses on careers to encourage more people to consider studying the relevant subjects and then move into jobs in those sectors and to address their very particular skill requirements. <BR /> <BR />The Northern Regional College (NRC) is a major asset to that area, and, as the Member will know, it has a very particular specialism in engineering. That goes back to the point that I made earlier about there being different emphases in different parts of Northern Ireland, given the different balance of the economy in different parts of the region. Obviously, given the constitution of companies in that area, the NRC has that reputation with respect to engineering.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Member is also right to point to the importance of gender issues in STEM. That has been in the news over the past number of weeks, due to some ill-judged comments that were made by a particular academic. We always need to encourage more women to engage in STEM careers and to study in STEM areas. Unless we do that, we will not fully maximise the talent base in Northern Ireland in the sectors that are most relevant to growing our economy.”
“I thank the Member for her question. I am sure that her distraction was entirely caused by my colleague, as opposed to her initiating discussions, given that my colleague was sitting over there at the time. <BR /> <BR />She raised a couple of important points. First, when we talk about STEM, it is not solely an issue for our higher education provision but what is offered through further education (FE) and mainstream provision and, increasingly, the apprenticeship system. While the FE sector, in common with other parts of the public sector, is wrestling with very difficult financial challenges at present, it is also trying to act in a very strategic way in seeking to protect what is most relevant to the economy. That is about ensuring that people are brought through the whole range of STEM skills interventions.”
“<BR /> <BR />After I leave Question Time, I will meet the disability sector to discuss the challenges being faced. I would like to give them some good news about developments in the political context, but I suspect that we are not yet at that stage, if, indeed, we will ever be at that stage over the coming weeks and months.”
“The attitude that the Member's party and other parties in the Chamber are taking to the Budget is having a massively detrimental impact on the community and voluntary sector and large aspects of society as a whole. We do not have a sustainable Budget settlement for Northern Ireland. We are in an extremely bad and extremely irresponsible place. A lot of very difficult decisions are having to be made on how to manage resources given the uncertainty. Frankly, the sooner the Member's party comes to its senses on budgets, the delivery of the Stormont House Agreement and the implementation of welfare, including all the modalities, the sooner we will be able to give certainty to the community and voluntary sector on where they stand.”
“That handcuffs Ministers who are acting in a responsible manner, because the more discretionary spend a Minister commits to at this stage, the further that constrains the scope to find savings later in the year. Even in a general sense, the later you act on the desire to find savings, the more difficult it becomes because more expenditure is committed. Look at colleges and universities: they will be locked into providing places come August/September this year. The Member has touched on the pitfalls of where we stand, not just in the general sense, which has been well articulated, but in how Departments manage their expenditure from day to day.”
“We have received a letter from the Finance Minister that requested that Departments be very cautious about further discretionary spend. I fully understand why the letter was issued by the Minister: we do not have certainty on what our budgets will be over the remainder of this year. A Budget might be agreed by the Assembly over the coming days, but that, in itself, will not resolve the underlying financial issues, including those in-year. The non-implementation of the Stormont House Agreement and welfare reform means a pressure of £600 million. <BR /> <BR />I have no certainty on where my budget will be in several months' time or whether we will be asked to make further in-year cuts.”
“However, in the narrower STEM subjects, we have a small footprint relative to some of our competitors. We are aware of that imbalance, and we are encouraging universities to address it even before we hit the current round of cuts.”
“I am a little reluctant to use the term "pressure". We need to be slightly sensitive, given that we are collectively part of a system that is already, in a sense, undermining what the universities have to offer. That said, I think it fair to say that the universities and the Department have in common a sense of the strategic direction. Even outside the context of how best to mitigate the effect of cuts, there has been, as part of our existing higher education strategy, a project that is about rebalancing the offer in our universities. That is not to diminish the importance of a range of other subjects, but it is about changing the balance on the margins so that we have a greater footprint in STEM subjects. Relative to other jurisdictions, Northern Ireland's STEM footprint has a strong record.”
“The requested protection, which the universities are intent on delivering, would not necessarily cover the full range of what the Member has outlined. <BR /> <BR />When we ask the universities to protect the subjects that are deemed most relevant to the economy, that comes at an additional cost. On average, those subjects are more expensive to provide than some arts and humanities courses. When we ask for such protection, that puts further pressure on places elsewhere in the system. However, we have to take a balanced view of what is most important for the future of the Northern Ireland economy and act strategically, including at times of great pressure and stress. All I will say is that, the sooner we have a change of direction in our finances and begin to reinvest in our universities, the sooner we will be on a much better course.”
“As the Member will appreciate, Queen's University and Ulster University have announced in general terms the impact of in-year cuts on student places and potential staff reductions. This is a detrimental state of affairs that is not only sending out a negative image to the rest of the world but impacting on opportunities for our young people. <BR /> <BR />Within that framework, I have asked the universities to protect, as far as they can, what we term the "narrow STEM subjects": maths, physics, computer science, engineering and elements of life sciences and biological sciences. When the Member refers to health and life sciences, that is probably a slightly broader concept that will bring in what we would term "allied health areas".”
“To add to that, I hope that the Member will see the lessons learned from the outworkings of the conference in the Department's ongoing policy development work and how, at a more local level, that filters through to the curriculum offered by the colleges, including the South West College in his area.”
“<BR /> <BR />On the back of that, I had the opportunity to visit the Basque region in Spain in the same week and was able to sign a memorandum of understanding with the regional government there on exchange opportunities for our students and to allow our colleges to develop further their international strategies on learning about best practice in each other's jurisdictions. I was encouraged that they were as keen to learn from us as we are to learn from them.”
“I was pleased that our colleges in Northern Ireland were able to host the TA3 conference in Belfast earlier this month. This prestigious conference brings together practitioners from different parts of the world, including the United States, Denmark, Spain and Germany, to share best practice on further education and vocational training. Some of the biggest employers, such as Siemens, which use vocational training, were also represented. The conference built on a strong local track record of learning from best practice internationally around the successes of vocational training, and it provided a good opportunity to share that best practice further.”
“The Member may well make a powerful case in that regard, but, in a context where the higher education sector alone faces in-year cuts to date of £16 million, on top of what is already a structural deficit, according to universities, of around £39 million with other pressures, including from the Member's colleagues, for expansion of the sector, notably at the Magee campus in Derry, we are in a very difficult position to proceed along the lines that the Member articulates.”
“What I would say to the Member is that I would love it to be different. Things have been going so well so far today, and we were keeping ourselves reasonably calm and focused on the detail of policy. However, I must mention the elephant in the room: unless we have a major change in the nature of funding for higher education in Northern Ireland, options such as increased maintenance support will simply not be viable.”
“The consultation is currently under development by my officials, and I hope to have the opportunity to consider the initial draft in the near future.”
“Students contend not only with day-to-day living costs but, in many cases, with significant upfront costs in respect of things such as accommodation, books and equipment. Therefore, I intend to launch a consultation in the near future outlining options for the frequency at which the payments are made, including options for monthly payments. The consultation will clearly outline the pros and cons of each option and any additional administrative costs associated with the options considered. <BR /> <BR />I stress that the consultation will consider only the frequency at which the existing maintenance package is paid. In our current financial circumstances, it would simply not be realistic to consider options for raising the level of overall support available.”
“At present, full-time undergraduate higher education students from Northern Ireland receive their maintenance support payments in three instalments, roughly at the beginning of each term of the academic year. A number of student union bodies and a number of fellow Members of the Assembly have raised concerns in recent months about the existing payment frequency. It is felt that larger and less frequent payments heighten the risk of financial mismanagement and, by extension, the risk of financial hardship among students. It has been suggested that smaller and more frequent payments would better prepare students for entering the working world, where wages are, in the majority of cases, paid monthly. Of course, there are other sides to the argument.”
“That will include a lot of the projects that have been announced and will be resourced under the European social fund.”
“I thank the Member for his question and congratulate him on his timing in that he has got in a week ahead of the formal announcement of the new system. I hope to make a statement to the Assembly next Tuesday in that regard. Our new system will be open to all young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are capable of achieving a level 2 qualification. There is a pool of people who, for various reasons, leave school and do not progress directly into further or higher education, apprenticeships or employment but clearly, with support, have the potential to do so. The new system is designed to be of assistance to them. Where people do not yet have a level 1 qualification and therefore are not in a position to access the new system of youth training, there will be support available to help them to get that far.”
“The review is being finalised, and the strategy, when published, will include details of the new system, along with an implementation plan. There will be piloting of the strategy from July this year onwards including industry consultants, with a full system in place from September 2016.”
“The consultation on the review of youth training closed in February 2015. When operational, the new youth training system will secure a step change in professional and technical training for all young people aged between 16 and 24 through a new system of learning. It will be accessible to those already in employment, those starting a new job and those not yet in employment.”
“There is a real challenge for the Southern Government to work on improving the offer that they have, particularly around the level 2 and level 3 equivalents in the north-west, particularly in the north of County Donegal. By far the predominance of student flows from South to North occurs in that north Donegal/Derry corridor, which indicates that there is recognition that Derry, in some ways, has been a natural hinterland over history for that part of the island and that there is a real underinvestment in facilities outside the context of what is offered by the Letterkenny Institute of Technology.”
“The figure is between £6 million and £7 million at present, but I will write to the Member and give him the precise figure. As he will be aware, that is an outworking of European Union legislation on the free movement of students. In case the House thinks that, all of a sudden, I am being converted to Euroscepticism, it is one small source of frustration in what is otherwise a very lucrative area from which Northern Ireland's economy and wider society massively benefits. <BR /> <BR />The real source of the cost that is being borne in Northern Ireland is less as a result of having students from the South coming to study in the North; rather, it is more the case that we do not see the flow going in the other direction.”
“<BR /> <BR />I say this to any young person who wants to study outside Northern Ireland: by all means, pursue your dreams, but do not forget about us in Northern Ireland and please consider coming back to build your career here.”
“I thank the Member for his interest. We have been progressively removing the actual barriers to free movement on the island. That having been said, we have seen a reversal of trends over the past 10 years on the scale of movement in both directions on the island, and that is disappointing. It is worth stressing that the flow on the island, again in both directions, is much smaller than the flow between Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK. Undoubtedly, there is untapped potential. In common with what I said to Mr McElduff, the real focus has to be on attitudes and on using the careers approach and other key influencers in society to encourage young people to see the full range of opportunities that is out there.”
“We probably need a stronger public debate to encourage students, and I include in that other influencers, such as parents and friends, to think about the opportunities that may exist. <BR /> <BR />The Member is right to indicate that, as pressure on public finances continues, there will be a need for specialism in some areas, and, whether that is for our universities, institutes of technology or further education colleges, we should be seeking to establish where we can find economies of scale in some very particular specialisms and trying to find a solution to the benefit of everyone. In some ways, we are doing that through the research offer across our different higher education institutions on the island.”
“I thank the Member for his question and his comments. In some respects, he is right to focus on the careers aspect, because I would like to think that, in addressing the recommendations, we have addressed very clearly the issues around funding and the distortions that previously existed in funding. The issue regarding recognition of the qualifications from Northern Ireland is well on the way to being resolved, and we will see how that rolls out over forthcoming years. The key attitude now has to be around tackling attitudes and hearts and minds. Obviously, our careers teachers and careers advisers have a critical role to play in that regard. A lot of training has been provided, and people are much more aware of the mutual opportunities that exist across the two jurisdictions.”
“<BR /> <BR />I regularly meet the Irish Minister for Education to discuss a range of issues, including student mobility. I will continue to meet Minister O'Sullivan to discuss progress on these issues, and my officials will work closely with their counterparts in the South on that and other cross-border issues.”
“As well as supporting our local students, that information can act as a gateway for other students, including those from the South, who may be interested in studying in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />Northern Ireland students studying in the South now have access to funding support. The Irish Universities Association recently announced that it is planning to make changes to the Central Applications Office point system to improve access for A-level students. <BR /> <BR />My officials have been working with officials in the Department of Education and Skills to research and analyse the impact of future demographics on cross-border student flows in order to inform future policy development. A joint report was published on 15 of June.”