1. Jim Murray
THEA

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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 …..

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

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

14. Thank You!