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NEW EUROSTAT FIGURES reveal that Ireland has reduced the number of early school leavers and performed well in reaching European 2020 targets.
In the 18-24 population, 9.7 per cent left education or training early in 2011. This is 1.7 percent behind the Europe target of 8 per cent.
Targets
Ireland is also only slightly behind the European target for 30-34 age group to hold a third level degree. Of that age group, 51.5 per cent had a third level qualification, while the European 2020 target is 60 per cent.
In terms of Ireland’s employment rate, the Eurostat figures show that 63.7 per cent of the working age population was in employment, behind the Europe 2020 target of 75 per cent. Nevertheless, the country was still closer to its employment commitments for 2020 than the EU average.
Reseach and Development spending reached 1.72 per cent in 2012, which the Eurostat survey says moves Ireland closer to the national target of 2 per cent sending of GDP.
While Ireland was praised for those improvements, the figures shows that Ireland is falling behind in some areas.
Ireland lagged behind the EU average in the areas of climate change and energy, with the share of renewable energies at 6.7 per cent of energy consumption, a 9.3 percentage point distance from the Europe 2020 target of 16 per cent
In 2011, Ireland was also the country furthest from its national poverty reduction target, implying that an additional 455,000 people need to be lifted out of the risk of poverty or social exclusion by 2016.
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That’s just because we don’t have a highly paid construction industry anymore, which drew people out of school.
Exactly. Was going to make this point too but you got there before me. People are staying in school because they have no choice.
Either way I think it’s a great thing. If more of the lads that ended up getting let go from the construction sector had at least got a decent leaving certificate behind them they’d have some hope of getting a new career on track. Education is always the key!
It’s rough fir young people just finishing college. There’s a huge amount of young men and women with degrees and don’t know what to do with them. No jobs for them here. Very few options apart from the airports !!!
Well in fairness lots of people do degrees in subjects that have no present, past or future relevance to the Irish economy.
It’s their own fault for doing degrees in Anthropology, Classics, Archaeology etc. When they chose the degree they knew what they were getting into so there’s no point moaning that Ireland hasn’t turned into an archaeological hotspot.
Depends on the sector Duncan, I think if young people put some thought into what sectors have work available then they would have a much better chance of going straight into work when they come out of college. No point in pursuing a career that offers no employment opportunities.
A humanities degree should allow you to study in depth a topic you are interested in. It is nonsense to suggest degrees in certain humanities are worthless. You learn how to think, write and problem solve in a humanities degree. The idea that you would go from a bachelors degree into work does not apply to humanities generally, but that is because these subjects give you the basis to pursue a masters in an specific area or get further qualifications in another sector. This is the value of humanities degrees. You have a good general basis and hopefully have gained a clearer knowledge of what you want to do with your life. There is an unrealistic expectation amongst many parents and the public that degrees should equip you in and of themselves for work. Arts degrees are not the degree you should pursue if this is what you want. An arts degree gives you a good solid basis higher level education which will allow you to pursue a successful training into many of the professions.
Well there’s no point on going to college to do a Course for the “economy” you do the course if it’s something you see yourself doing for the rest of your life. I know people that spent years in collage because there was good money and prospects out of it but hated the work, what’s the point? If I have to go abroad to do what I enjoy doing that’s my choice,, especially of I have that choice. One shoe does not fit all
Well said Stiofan.
Degrees equip students with transferable skills. My degree in economics and geography did not stop me from working in the IT industry.
The point I was trying to make was not that degrees do not have transferable skills but that people do degrees in obscure subjects and turn their noses up at working at anything other than the obscure subject that they studied. Then complain that there are no jobs.
You get a lot of those skills in lots of degrees anyway.
If you are a poor eastern european you have two options ;
1. Go to the richest country in the E.U. (Deutchland) and work for 3 or 4 euro an hour ….or……
2. Fly to Ireland where the Irish are leaving their jobs and dole behind ;
all facilitated by the Troika and signed onto the Irish sovereign by our so-called Government !
If you are Iirsh you have 2 options;
1. Join a political party and suck the marrow out of the nation for short-term financial gain …..or…..
2. Keep your principles, the very essence of your individuality, and leave the sorry mess behind.
Viva la E.U. ! …and Eurostat ………..
@dermot – Dont you have any pride at all? It’s like your proud to emigrate and leave your country of origin. Pretty sad sight to read. I for one would never emigrate unless I had absolutely no other options and I still wouldnt be happy about it. Hate the goverment, love the country!
Cathal dude ; I can’t emigrate ;I love this place and I have elderly parents, but if the european control of Ireland is not curbed and the political system and the people who are running it are not sorted then we are looking at race wars, sectarianism and a whole host of shit that we never voted for !
I left out option 3. ; get blogging and cut my enemies to pieces…. I have no problem with people from anywhere who come here to work but the point above regarding eastern europe has to be made…it suits Germany to have a very lucrative social welfare system here ; it keeps their immigration down, furthermore our social welfare system could support a whole load of other people if our Government tackled the high cost of food ; the profits of which go to foreign tax secretive companies , which were supported fully by the I.F.A. during the horsemeat scandal I noticed !
Please tell us more.
Excellent ; another report on emigration !
What did this cost fg
Nothing ; they just gave us the bill !
So much for the “knowledge-based economy”
After 3 years of the junior cycle a geography teacher told us to ” take that junior cert down to the jacks with ye, cause that’s all its worth”.Perhaps a vocational option should be opened up like the UK are considering?
This looks like a report from earlier in the year, it was actually a positive news story, at 51.1%, Ireland has the highest level of degree holders in the age group of 30-34 year-olds. The current EU average is 35%. The EU target is for the year 2020, that is seven years away and we are nearly hitting the target already.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/irish-have-more-degrees-than-rest-of-eu-survey-1.1376652 (not free)
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