Jim Murray THEA

TU Dublin Athlone Carlow Cork Dundalk Dun Laoghaire Galway - Mayo Technological Higher Education Sector – 1 technological university and 11 institutes of technology TU Dublin Athlone Carlow Cork Dundalk Dun Laoghaire Galway - Mayo Letterkenny Limerick Sligo Tralee Waterford

Legislative Context Qualifications & Quality Assurance Act 2012 Industrial Training Act 1967 RTCs Act 1992 Institutes of Technology Act 2006 Qualifications & Quality Assurance Act 2012 Qualifications Act 1999 Technological Universities Act 2018

Legislative Legacy: Tension Regulatory Foundation of Apprenticeship – centralised authority and control QA Foundation of Apprenticeship –more distributed responsibility Uniformity V Unitarity Standardisation V Flexibility Single Authority V Multiple Authorities National Programme V National Programmes

In the absence of Structural Reform ……. QQI’s Statutory QA Guidelines for Providers of Statutory Apprenticeships Heroic attempt to synthesise and harmonise: Single Authority model and Multiple Authority model Centralised and Distributed QA Uniformity v Unitarity Academic Autonomy and Regulatory Control Establishes concept of Coordinating and Collaborating Providers

Legislative Legacy: Embedded in the Existing and New Apprenticeships Post-2016

The Tension Canvas: Pre- and Post-2016 Apprenticeships Single Awarding Body Single QA Regime, though not coherent Mediated through SOLAS/NAAC-ITAC nexus; distant from THEI Academic Councils Narrow institutional ownership in THEIs QA Responsibilities not always clear between SOLAS and THEIs – assumptions and reality differ Post-2016 Multiple Awarding Bodies Distributed QA responsibilities Mediated through THEI Registrars and Academic Councils Broad institutional ownership in THEIs QA Responsibilities clear, but (overly) complex

Apprenticeship System: QA Actors & Roles SOLAS Regulation and System Management: QA Dimension pre- and post-2016 (Authorised Officers) Funding Provision: Coordination(pre-2016) Internal QA (pre-2016) QQI External QA (pre-and post- 2016) Validation and Awarding (pre- and post-2016) THEIs Provision: Coordination (post-2016) and Collaboration (pre- and post- 2016) Validation and Awarding (post-2016)

QA in Apprenticeships: The Janus Effect in THEIs Look two ways Pre-2016 To a more regulated past Out of kilter with institutional autonomy Decision making detached from locus of institutional QA: Programme Boards, Registrar and Academic Councils Responsibilities unclear between Coordinating and Collaborating Providers Post-2016 More forward looking Fully integrated into Academic and QA structures But legacy issues remain …..

Post-2016 Apprenticeships Legacy Issue: National Programmes and QA Coordinating Provider Insurance Professional QA: IT Sligo Collaborating Provider Pharma QA: TU Dublin Tallaght Campus Polymer Processing Technology QA: AIT Manufacturing Engineering QA: GMIT IT Sligo

Other unresolved QA Issues: Pre-2016 and Post-2016 Terms of engagement between Coordinating Provider (SOLAS) and Collaborating Providers (THEIs) on pre-2016 QA through Chief Academic Officer/Academic Council or through ITAC (has no QA responsibility, but at the heart of delivery)? Use of Professional Award-type Descriptors v NFQ Major Award-types descriptors affects understanding of progression (post-2016) Disconnect between the world of Apprenticeship QA and regular HE QA systems, especially pre-2016 MOUs between SOLAS and THEIs - are they considered in AIQRs, Annual Dialogues and Institutional Review? A subterranean world? QA of On-the-Job training (pre- and post-2016): Who? How? Where? Roles of Consortia and Authorised Officers in QA generally

Leave internal dissensions and machinations at the door Resolution: a National Apprenticeship QA Forum? QQI, SOLAS , ETBs/ETBI, THEIs/THEA, HEA: all in the same room at the same time Leave internal dissensions and machinations at the door Leave external competitive instincts at the door Structured discussions between equal partners An optimal QA system that recognises the regulatory and QA foundations of apprenticeship and how they may be applied rationally in 2019

Brave New Apprenticeship QA World: Goodbye Frustration, Hello Calm!!!!!

Thank You!