2026

 Higher Education Capacity Building: Health and Social Care 

The Higher Education Authority Act 2022 requires An tÚdarás to ‘plan for higher education provision and to make recommendations to the Minister on the overall provision of student places’ [S9(1)d] and to ‘support the provision of a range of programmes of higher education and training aimed at meeting [local, regional, and national] educational and skills needs…’ [S9(1)e] [also S34(1)]. 

In 2022, the HEA developed an expression of interest (EOI) process to identify opportunities in the higher education system to build capacity areas of acute skills shortages, these disciplines were; Dentistry, Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing, and Veterinary Medicine programmes. This process was designed to respond swiftly to national skills needs by identifying options for programme creation or expansion in academic years 2024-25 or 2025-26.

The 2022 process established seven new programmes in Dentistry, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine and expansion on existing programmes in Nursing. New programmes create a geographical spread of provision of these programmes. In the case both Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine, both disciplines were available in the South East and North West of Ireland for the first time. 

In 2025, a similar process was implemented, under the direction of the cabinet committee for disabilities, to expand provision in health and social care programmes that support disability services in Ireland. A total of 461 additional student places have been agreed across the following nine professions: Occupational Therapist; Physiotherapist; Speech & Language Therapist; Chiropodist/Podiatrist; Dietitian; Social Worker; Medical Scientist; Radiation Therapist; Radiographer. The regulator of these professions is CORU, further information regarding requirements of the regulator is available here Education - Coru.

Currently this process is underway, with expression of interests being sought in May 2026 for additional places in new or existing programmes in therapy disciplines, educational psychology and social work. Higher Education Capacity Building Process 2026 – Health and Social Care Professions | Policy | Higher Education Authority

National Reform in Higher Education (HCI and Springboard+) Human Capital Initiative

The Human Capital Initiative (HCI) is a five-year investment in the higher education system to innovate and reform the system’s ability to respond to national skills needs. It was launched in 2020 and has three pillars of activity. The funding allocation ended in 2024, however DFHERIS gave permission to reallocate remaining budgets for investment into key identified projects of strategic policy importance up to 2026.

HCI Pillar 1: Graduate Conversion Programmes. These are one-year, full time conversion courses at Levels 8 and 9 on the National Framework of Qualifications, in areas of identified skills need, building on experience of the ICT Conversion Courses funded under other national initiatives such as Springboard+. By 2025 HCI Pillar 1 has provided 13,914 graduate conversion places on 163 courses over a 5-year period. This programme has ended and there were no new awards made post academic year 2024/25.

HCI Pillar 2: Expansion of Existing Places on Undergraduate Courses in high skills needs areas. Pillar 2 has supported 1250 additional graduates in high demand skills areas over a four-year period. These graduates are in high skills needs areas including Computing, Engineering, and Robotics. This programme has ended and there are currently no plans for a future call.

HCI Pillar 3: Innovation and Agility is focused on the core principle of embedding innovation and agility across a wide spectrum of higher education provision. In 2026, HCI projects that received an extended duration continue to deliver on key OECD Skills Strategy Review objectives for Ireland and address national strategy objectives as detailed in the National Development Plan (NDP), and other national policy objectives including national policies for Climate Action Plan, Housing for All, Harnessing Digital, Skills for biopharma and modern methods for construction skills. These projects will run until December 2026.

A HCI pillar 3 project of strategic policy importance is the MicroCreds project, which has established Ireland as the first country in Europe to implement a coherent national framework for quality-assured and accredited micro-credentials. This framework, developed through sector-wide consensus and in alignment with national and European policy objectives, enabled the recognition of micro-credentials for both professional and academic purposes. The MicroCreds.ie portal was developed as part of this framework as a ‘one-stop-shop’ to increase awareness and uptake of micro credentials among learners and enterprises. This portal is managed by the HEA. 

After the success of the first micro-credential learner fee subsidy pilot ran by the HEA, which launched February 2024 and continued to run throughout 2025, with 6,618 places being filled across 618 micro-credentials, a micro-credential call for proposals was approved to run in 2026. In May 2026, the Micro-Credential Learner Fee Subsidy launched with 179 micro-credentials approved for an 80% learner fee subsidy. This initiative subsidises 3,881 learner places across 26 higher education institutions (HEIs) nationwide. The approved programmes respond to enterprise skills demands and are aligned with national and regional skills needs, particularly in areas of digital transformation skills. This subsidy is available on identified micro-credentials up until December 2026.

Pillar 2: Expansion of Existing Places on Undergraduate Courses

Pillar 2 has supported 1250 additional graduates in high demand skills areas over a four-year period. These graduates are in high skills needs areas including Computing, Engineering, and Robotics. This programme has ended and there are currently no plans for a future call.

Pillar 3: Innovation and Agility

HCI Pillar 3: Innovation and Agility is focused on the core principle of embedding innovation and agility across a wide spectrum of higher education provision. In 2026, HCI projects that received an extended duration continue to deliver on key OECD Skills Strategy Review objectives for Ireland and address national strategy objectives as detailed in the National Development Plan (NDP), and other national policy objectives including national policies for Climate Action Plan, Housing for All, Harnessing Digital, Skills for biopharma and modern methods for construction skills. These projects will run until December 2026. 

A HCI pillar 3 project of strategic policy importance is the MicroCreds project, which has established Ireland as the first country in Europe to implement a coherent national framework for quality-assured and accredited micro-credentials. This framework, developed through sector-wide consensus and in alignment with national and European policy objectives, enabled the recognition of micro-credentials for both professional and academic purposes. The MicroCreds.ie portal was developed as part of this framework as a ‘one-stop-shop’ to increase awareness and uptake of micro credentials among learners and enterprises. This portal is managed by the HEA. 

After the success of the first micro-credential learner fee subsidy pilot ran by the HEA, which launched February 2024 and continued to run throughout 2025, with 6,618 places being filled across 618 micro-credentials, a micro-credential call for proposals was approved to run in 2026. 

In May 2026, the Micro-Credential Learner Fee Subsidy launched with 179 micro-credentials approved for an 80% learner fee subsidy. This initiative subsidises 3,881 learner places across 26 higher education institutions (HEIs) nationwide. The approved programmes respond to enterprise skills demands and are aligned with national and regional skills needs, particularly in areas of digital transformation skills. This subsidy is available on identified micro-credentials up until December 2026.

Springboard+

Springboard+ 2026 launched on 26 March 2026, offering 7,274 places across 244 courses delivered by 36 higher education providers nationwide. The programme encourages individuals across Ireland to make 2026 their “Year of Me” by investing in skills and career development. The programme continues to be responsive to the changing labour market while providing flexible courses across a geographical spread. Courses are offered in areas such as artificial intelligence, digital technologies, sustainability, healthcare innovation, advanced manufacturing, and business leadership, alongside emerging fields including offshore wind energy, the circular economy, carbon accounting, aircraft leasing, agri-innovation, and climate-focused enterprise. The programme also continues to offer micro-credential courses, providing valuable opportunities to access short, flexible, and accredited learning designed to build targeted, in-demand skills. Springboard+ 2026 is currently in year two of its multi annual funding cycle. Further information and how to apply can be found on the Springboard+ website. 

2025

National Reforms related to Transversal Skills and Employability   

The following policies are in operation to ensure that all learners develop transversal skills and employability:

• Expanding provision and improving quality in early childhood education and care (see section 14.1);
• Curricular reforms, embedding of key skills, addressing disadvantage and special needs, increasing school completion rates, and the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy, and enhancing ICT (see section 14.2);
• Provision of second chance education for early school leavers and the unemployed, the Youth Guarantee, the Action Plan for Jobs and reforms of vocational training in the Further Education and Training sector (see section 14.3);
• Reforms under way in Higher Education (see section 14.4);
• Expansion of apprenticeships and work-based learning generally across further and higher education and training;
• The Innovation 2020 Strategy;
• The National Skills Strategy 2025;

In addition to a re-orientation of VET towards the unemployed to the extent feasible, specific programmes are under way in the Further and Higher Education and Training Sectors to address unemployment. The main measures are:

• Springboard – 9000 free part time places annually in the higher education sector offered at certificate, diploma, degree and masters level aimed at the unemployed and those seeking to re-enter work;
• Momentum – 6500 free places annually on Further Education and Training Programmes aimed at the long term unemployed. The Momentum programme has been significantly reduced since 2016, as apprenticeships and other reforms take hold. No new intake is currently planned;
• VTOS – Vocational Training Opportunity Scheme offering 1-2 year full-time second chance education programmes at a variety of levels in the Further Education Sector for over 21 unemployed;
• Youthreach – a 1-2 year second chance education programme for early school leavers;
• Back to Education Allowance* – continuation of welfare payments to enable unemployed adults to participate in further or higher education and training;
• Community Employment Scheme* – work placements of up to 20 hours per week in a community setting, with some training, for unemployed adults. Placements are generally from 1-3 years duration, extended to 6 years for particularly vulnerable groups. The scheme is generally aimed at participants over 25, but certain disadvantaged groups can participate from age 18;
• TUS* – a community work placement initiative aimed at under 25s;
• Gateway* – a work placement scheme for the unemployed in a local authority setting;
• JobsPlus* – a subsidy to employers paid over 2 years where they recruit a person who is long tern unemployed. €7500 is paid for persons over 1 year unemployed. €10,000 is paid for participants over 2 years unemployed.  

* measures administered by the Department of Social Protection.

26.5% of those in work are employed in enterprises of less than 10 people, 22.5% are in enterprises with 10-49 people, and a further 19% are medium sized enterprises of 50-249 people, and therefore have limited capacity to provide their own training. In order to overcome this issue, Skillnets was established to provide education and training for employees and job seekers through a clustering of companies on a sectoral basis. Skillnets operates over 65 training networks nationwide across a range of sectors, as well as working closely with education and training providers to re-orient FET and higher education programmes to better meet their needs.

Successive Pathways to Work plans have been published by the Minister for Social Protection since 2012. The key elements in the plans centre on structured activation strategy to ensure that appropriate supports and referral arrangements are in place to enable the unemployed to upgrade their skills and experience.  This is embodied in the following measures:

• Improved activation through the roll-out of 44 Intreo "one stop shop" employment services. This provides for group and one to one engagement, individual profiling and a case management approach;
• The introduction of a ‘social contract’ of rights and responsibilities between jobseekers and the State for both the Department of Social Protection and the jobseeker agreed through the Record of Mutual Commitment, and penalty rates of payment where participants do not take reasonable steps to avail of work/upskilling opportunities;
• Building up structured links between employment services and employers and higher and further education and training providers through Regional Skills Fora, career awareness, jobs fairs etc.;
• Continued structural reform in further and higher education and training and a re-orientation of FET programmes towards the unemployed.

The Skills Labour Market Unit operated jointly by the Higher Education Authority and Solas publishes regular national and regional skills bulletins outlining expected jobs demand by sector and general level, and this is supplemented by regular updates prepared by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs.

National Training Fund 

Established by the National Training Fund Act, 2000, the National Training Fund (NTF) is a dedicated fund to raise the skills of those in employment and facilitate lifelong learning; provide training to those who wish to acquire skills to take up employment and provide information in relation to skills requirements in the economy. 

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research and Science (D/FHERIS) is responsible for the overall management, monitoring and evaluation of the Fund, while the Minister for Finance manages and controls the investment account.

The Fund is financed by a levy on employers, which is collected through the PRSI employers’ contribution. Currently the NTF levy is set at 1! On reckonable earnings, following annual increases of 0.1% during Budgets 2018 to 2020.

A key priority of the Fund is to strengthen and shape existing, and develop new, HE and FET provision to ensure alignment with workforce reskilling, upskilling and lifelong learning requirements.  This is essential to deliver on the talent needs of the economy and strengthen Ireland’s competitive position and reputation for an agile and responsive workforce.

The NTF allocates funding to 18 programmes, delivered across Government Departments, agencies and other bodies. SOLAS, Skillnet Ireland and the HEA account for approximately 98% of NTF funding.

A significant investment, allocating an additional €1.485 billion to the tertiary education sector over six years from 2025 to 2030, was announced as part of Budget 2025. Small amendments are required to the NTF Act to facilitate aspects of this announcement. 

These amendments will not change the purposes of the NTF and all expenditure will continue to align with the Act’s objectives: to enhance the skills of those in employment, offer training to job seekers, and provide information on skill needs.

National Skills Council

The National Skills Council (NSC), launched in April 2017, was recently reformed in line with the governance recommendations from the 2023 OECD Review of Ireland’s National Skills Strategy.  The reformed Council resumed its activity in September 2024 with a new membership and mandate.

The NSC is now an advisory, non-statutory body made up of high-level representatives from Irish industry, social partners and main non-governmental stakeholders. The main objective of the NSC is to provide expertise from across society and the economy to advise the Minister and the Government on the direction and high-level objectives for skills policy formation in Ireland. 

This partnership, between the government, enterprise and social partners, aims to serve as a key building block to help bridge the gap between the demands of modern workplaces and the ever-changing needs of society and the labour market, and government’s response to those needs. 

The NSC is a broadly representative partnership made up of:
•    8 enterprise representatives from different sectors/sized organisations,
•    4 representatives of the social partners nominated by ICTU, IBEC, ISME, and the Community and Voluntary Sector,
•    2 skills experts, one of which is an academic expert on transversal skills, and the other a labour market skills expert.

The NSC is supported in its work by the High-Level Skills Implementation Group (HLSIG), which was established in 2023 and has been tasked with the delivery of whole-of-government and whole-of-tertiary engagement on national skills policy. The HLSIG is composed of ex officio representatives from Government Departments and Agencies and is chaired by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Skills. It provides policy expertise and operational support to the NSC as needed. 
Regional Skills Fora
The aim of the Regional Skills Fora is to bring people together at local and regional level, to identify, interrogate and validate skills needs, and to ensure that employers / enterprise are linked to the right places, to get responses they need. The Fora provide valuable bottom-up information and insights, which feed into the work of the NSC, to ensure that the skills agenda, at national level, is evidence-informed and serves its purpose for people across the country. 
The Fora in particular work with small, medium, and micro enterprises to connect skills needs with responses.

Lifelong Learning

EU Target on Lifelong Learning (LLL)

The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan set a target of 60% of all adults participating in LLL every year by 2030. In May 2022, under the Plan, Ireland committed to achieving a 64.2% participation rate in lifelong learning by 2030.

Challenges to meeting Ireland’s LLL Target       

Challenges to meeting the 2030 target of 64.2% include time and cost-related obstacles, as well as motivation obstacles. 
Across adult population cohorts, deeper challenges emerge. Older adults, those with low levels of qualification, those in precarious employment, and those employed in sectors exposed most to automation, are less likely to have access to LLL.   This echoes challenges identified across the EU and beyond.

OECD Review of Ireland’s National Skills Strategy and LLL   

As highlighted by the OECD in the 2023 OECD Review of Ireland’s National Skills Strategy, new digital technologies including information and communication technologies, artificial intelligence, and robotics, are reshaping the way people live, work, and learn. This is particularly noteworthy in the context of the other trends across the world of work as a result of sustainability requirements, deglobalisation and demographic change. The workforce development agenda is a key challenge at individual, enterprise and national level.

LLL was one of the four priority areas examined by the 2023 OECD Review of Ireland’s National Skills Strategy, with the review noting that a culture of LLL needs to be further strengthened so that the adult participation rate in education and training in Ireland increases.  

In order to address some of the challenges relating to participation in LLL the review recommends:
•    Incentivising adults to participate in LLL to improve the prominence of LLL in Ireland’s society, and provide tailored and targeted support to disadvantaged groups to address the specific barriers they face to participating in LLL;  
•    Strengthening incentives to participate in LLL for employers; and
•    Making LLL more flexible and accessible.

In May 2025, SOLAS, the Further Education and Training Authority, reported that Ireland’s LLL participation rate has increased to 16%, exceeding the National Skills Strategy target of 15% for 2025. 

LLL rates measures the extent to which adults engage in formal and/or non-formal learning activities throughout their lives.

The report, which is compiled using the CSO’s Labour Force Survey, details LLL participation amongst adults in Ireland and shows that for the second year in a row a record number of people engaged in LLL activities (Q4 2024). 

Key findings from the report:

•    Ireland’s LLL rate increased to 16% in quarter 4 2024, up from just under 14% in quarter 4 2023.

•    In quarter 4 2024, nearly 457,900 adults aged between 25 and 64 years in Ireland, had engaged in formal and/or non-formal learning activities in the preceding four weeks. This is the highest number of adult lifelong learners to date.

•    The number of LLL participants fell sharply during COVID-19 and while slow to recover, numbers have now exceeded (by 76,800) their pre-COVID levels.

•    Ireland ranks slightly above the EU average (14%) in terms of engagement in LLL.

•    As in earlier years, LLL rates decreased with age but increased with greater educational attainment.

2024

There have been no reforms.