The employers' organisation, IBEC, has strongly criticised the existing adult education system and called for a major investment programme in what it described as the Cinderella of the Irish education sector.
IBEC yesterday attacked the system as poorly funded, inflexible, poorly co-ordinated and said it was not linked to further education structures. It also claimed that the system did not effectively target those who failed in first chance education and failed to acknowledge work-related experience as an entry provision.
Among IBEC's recommendations were the setting up of a new national body responsible for adult education; increased availability and flexibility of full-time and part-time courses.
It also calls for the introduction of a quota system guaranteeing places in third-level institutions for mature students; tax credits and loans for individuals undertaking adult education course; and the development of the potential offered by open distance learning and channels for distribution, for example television and the Internet.
IBEC issued its statement yesterday after a meeting with senior officials from the Department of Education to discuss the organisation's response to the Department's Green Paper on adult education.
The organisation said more than 50 per cent of all adults had not completed Leaving Certificate and less than 3 per cent of the education budget was spent on adult education, with £65 million per annum spent on adult education out of a total budget of £2.4 million. "IBEC believes the current level of provision is totally inadequate to maximise the human resource potential of the country. Without investment in adult education we cannot hope to compete effectively in the global economy," said Mr Brendan Butler, IBEC's director of social policy.