Adult Learner Supports: The Cinderella Sector Once Again?  

The Budget announcement on Tuesday 6th October, was heavily dominated by new measures in higher education, with university students prioritised for support.  

These supports are needed and very welcome, but AONTAS are disappointed to see a lack of comparable focus on the further education and training (FET) system, community education or the learners who depend on welfare payments to take part.  

In our pre-budget submission, we called for specific focus on financial support for FET learners, the vast majority of whom won’t benefit from SUSI increases announced this week.  

Even though the Programme for Government committed to reviewing financial supports for adult learners, Budget 2027 does little to ease the financial barriers to education in FET. The €10 increase in core social welfare rates falls well short of the benchmarked and indexed levels recommended by AONTAS, Social Justice Ireland, and the Vincentian MESL Research Centre.  

We had called for a dedicated Learner Assistance Fund of €5.56 million for all FET learners, equivalent to the Student Assistance Fund available to higher education students, to address acute hardship and prevent dropout- unfortunately this was not announced this week. 

This means many learners will continue to experience hardship amid a cost-of-living crisis where accommodation and access to affordable childcare remain major obstacles to participation, whilst higher education students receive enhanced support.  

There will also be enhanced access and inclusion measures in higher education in 2027, including additional supports provided for student parents and placement-related costs in higher education, helping more higher education students participate and succeed. Once again these are very welcome, but we are left asking what about parents who are learners in FET, or in community education? And what about work experience in the FET sector which also needs greater focus and support? 

Ruari Quinn, when Minister for Education in 2014, described FET as the ‘Cinderella Sector’- since then progress has been made in terms of recognition and support for adult learning in FET, but Budget 2027 seems to have overlooked the sector in favour of focusing on higher education once again.  

What progress was made?  

Despite Budget 2027 being a missed opportunity to deliver for adult learners who need the most support, some welcome measures were included in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science (DFHERIS).  

There will be a new ‘Tuiscint’ Lifelong Learning Award – €400,000 is being allocated for the roll out of this new award that recognises and encourages learning, personal development, and community participation for adults- Minister Harkin described this as a Gaisce award for adults, and noted it’s value for the community education sector.  

There will be €50 million investment in AI skills and workforce adaptation available in 2027- with the focus on higher education in other measures, we hope that the lion’s share of this is directed at FET and community education as adapting to AI will affect everyone, but those already at a disadvantage in terms of qualification level and income will be hit hardest. 

We welcome the new Literacy in the Workplace programme to support adult learners. 

Investment in apprenticeships increases again in 2027, rising by €34 million to a record €446 million. We need apprentices and we need their work and education to be equally valued to programmes in higher education, but women still make up just 10% of all apprentices, and additional funding should be directed at building inclusive pathways to work.  

Budget 2027 will create new course places in the caring professions with additional capacity in healthcare, disability, social care and therapy places. Community education has a key role to play here, though it went unacknowledged in the announcement- many adult learners take part in non-formal learning in community education which then leads to professional qualifications in the caring professions. Community education is a key mechanism for realising this potential- there is strong evidence that community education has the power to bring higher education into communities that are underrepresented on university campuses.   

Budget 2027 also provides funding over the next three years to support programmes that assist disabled learners in moving successfully from education into the workforce. This responds to barriers that AONTAS learner voice research consistently identifies. As a first step disabled learners should be better resourced in FET with the expansion of the Fund for Students with Disabilities.   

 There will be enhanced funding for buildings and facilities also across higher education and FET- we strongly recommend that this funding is targeted predominantly at the FET sector. Specifically, St Andrew’s Resource Centre will be expanded with €500,000 being allocated to support their construction studies programme across a new facility and with increased numbers of learners. This demonstrates the power of community education to create change, and we would like to see similar programmes in the sector receive support.