But there is a solution.

In Germany, there is a growing momentum towards dual track education. Dual track education is where a student is first recruited by an employer and, after an appropriate induction period, is registered on a recognised, often co-designed, programme of Education in a Higher Education Institution. 

Ireland generally tends to describe such an education pathway as an apprenticeship but that can be a loaded term. The big difference in Germany is that the dual track leads to an honours degree as well as a practical skills qualification that is tuned to the needs of the employer.

Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) provides a tremendously relevant (and popular) example of a so-called ’transfer’ university that operates in co-operation with 9,000 partner companies and more than 35,000 students. DHBW is the biggest HEI in Baden-Württemberg, a state (Länder) of more than 11 million people. 

Jeurgen Bleicher, Professor of Strategic Management at DHBW observes that, in addition to being over-subscribed, the concept of student drop out, ‘basically fails to exist’ in DHBW dual track programmes. The close partnership of programme co-design means that students ‘begin to immediately use what they learn’. That heightened sense of investment has proven to be tremendously popular with school leavers.

According to CSO figures, 34,500 people in the 15-24 age group left Ireland in 2011. By 2018, that figure had dropped to just 12,500, despite record numbers taking the Leaving cert. The growing inflation and accommodation crisis in Ireland, coupled with the emergence of lower priced third level education options across Europe mean that conditions are ripe for our young people to once again leave Ireland.

Ironically, this is at a time when Ireland is viewed by economists as being in full employment and in dire need of new talent, particularly in the Information, Communications and technology (ICT) sector. The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) predicts that up to 125,000 additional new ICT roles will emerge in Ireland by 2030.

A dual track approach will be essential for Ireland in such a climate. Irish students can become employees of the companies that are already desperate for new talent with ICT skills, manage the spiralling cost of living while at the same time attaining the bachelor, masters and professional doctorate level skills that are a feature of the new executive apprenticeships on offer at University Limerick (UL).

One of the cornerstones of the Action Plan launched by Minister Harris in April of 2021 was to embed apprenticeship ‘within the broader education and training landscape as a core offering’ by 2025. 

Although there’s been significant progress, more work needs to be done to identify the new roles outside the traditional craft professions that will attract school leavers into the areas where the talent crisis is most acute. More work also needs to be done to wean people off the notion that there is only one golden path into higher education.

It is stated in the plan that "apprenticeships will be available and recognised as a work based learning opportunity, providing sought-after qualifications across tertiary education".

One would be forgiven for forgetting this when observing the fallout each Autumn after leaving cert results and CAO offers emerge and coverage of alternative pathways are very much relegated. While an excellent portfolio of achievement may not capture the headlines that 6 A1’s might, it is a much better way to demonstrate aptitude for particular disciplines that the new apprenticeships will serve. 

There have to be examples people can look at and see that there’s an equivalent to a medicine degree or 600 points in aeronautical engineering, so that more students can consider these courses and also, their guidance counsellors and parents can recommend them.

Professor Stephen Kinsella, Co-Director of the innovative new Immersive Software Engineering degree at UL, described the portfolio that they used as a ‘real differentiator’ when it came to assessing applicants. He said that putting it together forced them to think carefully about the programme and the applicants loved it.

The old aphorism ‘If you can’t see it, you won’t be it’ has never been more relevant – it needs a range of employers, stimulated by the Government through programmes like the Human Capital Initiative, and working creatively with the Higher Education sector, to step up and present new stories of grand challenges being overcome that will encourage students to pursue these alternative career paths. 

This is one way of ensuring that the flight that occurred after 2008 is not repeated.

• Professor Martin Hayes is a professor of Digital Technologies and an academic lead for the UL@Work, Human Capital Initiative project at the University of Limerick.