To ask the Minister for the Economy for an assessment of the ability of the Further Education: Fit for the Future Programme to support the development of the arts sector.

Dr Archibald

I recognise the important contribution that the arts and creative sectors make to our society, culture and economy and the significant role that is played by further education colleges in arts and creative education. Learners who attend our further education colleges can study traditional disciplines, such as fine art, ceramics, textiles, photography, music and performing arts, alongside those in rapidly developing areas, such as film and TV, animation, visual effects, games development, virtual production and digital content. The offer extends from level 2 traineeships and level 3 vocational programmes to HNCs, HNDs, foundation degrees and level 6 qualifications, and it provides opportunities for learners to progress into higher-level education and creative industries. The Further Education: Fit for the Future programme is designed to enable an FE sector that is responsive to the needs of learners, employers and the wider economy. A key element is the development of a curriculum framework to help shape future curriculum planning across the sector, including supporting the arts and creative industries by the provision of industry-relevant curriculum and qualifications.

Dr Archibald

I thank the Member for her question. Part of it potentially relates to our previous conversation about the contingency allocations that our further education colleges are working to this year in the absence of a Budget. Certainly, my hope is that we will have a better Budget settlement than that which was on the table previously and that we will be in the position to uplift the allocations. The work on the Further Education: Fit for the Future programme, particularly that on the curriculum framework, is not about telling colleges which courses they need to provide but about providing a framework within which they can work.

That is very much about aligning with the needs of the economy, as the Member reflected. Creative industries comprise one of our priority sectors, so it is important that we have people coming out with the skills that businesses and the broader sector need. The work is designed to support that outcome. If she wants to, I would be happy for the Member to correspond with me about the specific concerns that have been raised with her, so that we can investigate them with officials in the colleges.

Miss Brogan

Will the Minister provide an update on the Fit for the Future programme, le do thoil?

Dr Archibald

I thank the Member for her question. The programme was launched, I think, in April. It is about strengthening the further education sector and doing exactly what the title says: making sure that it is fit for learners, communities and the broader economy in the future. Our colleges are a really important part of our skills ecosystem, which constantly changes, and our colleges constantly evolve their programmes to keep up with that, particularly with newer economies such as the green economy and the digital economy. They also play a really important role in supporting young people with special educational needs. We face significant challenges across a number of areas, including the number of young people with additional educational needs and the proportion of our population that is economically inactive, as it is called, because of the barriers that are faced. Our colleges therefore play a really important role not only in education but in social inclusion, so it is important that they are structured, funded and focused in the right way to deliver against the programme's objectives, which are about having real impact for learners, supporting employers and supporting the broader economy. There are four strands of work to the programme. As I mentioned, part of it is about developing a curriculum framework to introduce a new approach to how we measure performance, review and fund further education and consider how we can get greater collaboration across our colleges. The work is ongoing. We are at the early stages of it, but it will roll out over the next months.

Ms Forsythe

In light of the further education colleges having to cut places and courses and the impact of that on sectors such as the arts, does the Minister regret supporting John O'Dowd's draft Budget earlier this year? Further to that, does the Minister agree that it is important to make clear to the groups that blame their current financial pressures on the operation of the contingency Budget that, if they had adopted the original draft Budget, those pressures would be worse now?

Dr Archibald

I thank the Member for her question. We would all like to have been able to agree a three-year Budget. It would have put us in a much stronger position from a strategic perspective for planning how we deliver across all our objectives, particularly our Programme for Government and Executive commitments. Unfortunately, when we drilled into the detail of what that would mean, it became apparent to me that the challenges that my Department faced, particularly across further and higher education, could not be met by what was on the table. That is the position that the Executive collectively came to. It is right that we continue to argue for a proper Budget settlement. We have made progress. The British Government have acknowledged that we require additional funding. They have put additional funding on the table, but it has not gone far enough yet. It is important that we speak with one voice in continuing to make the case for a proper and fair Budget settlement, not just as an Executive but collectively as an Assembly.

Mr Nesbitt

Our third-level institutions have an admirable focus on finding the next Allen McClay or Frank Pantridge. Does the Minister detect the same enthusiasm to unearth the next Liam Neeson or Seamus Heaney?

Dr Archibald

I thank the Member. We have performed really well in the creative industries, particularly the screen industries, and our colleges and universities have been key to our being able to do so. However, it is important that we continue to support the sectors and make sure that the skills provision meets the needs of the businesses and wider sectors. That is where the work of the Fit for the Future programme is really important, as is making sure that our universities and colleges are properly funded. My own perspective is that we need to make sure that we have appropriate programmes and provision in relation to our arts sector in the same way as we do for our STEM sector. A lot of focus is, rightly, on our STEM sector, but the type of critical thinking and analysis skills that people gain from arts courses are really important and are very often the types of skills that are in demand from business, so it is important that we make sure that we have a very rounded programme of skills provision.