Further Education and Training in Ireland: Eight Decades to a Unified Sector

The thesis is an examination of the evolution in both the shape and direction taken by further education and training (FET) in the Republic of Ireland over eight decades, from the 1930s through to the present day. For most of this period, responsibility for the education and training of young people and adults was divided between separate authorities and agencies, each with their own administrative arrangements and policy priorities. In 2013, for the first time, a unified sector and structure of further education and training was established, alongside higher education and school education. Based on a systematic reading and analysis of primary and secondary sources, three phases of development are identified prior to unification and will be examined and analysed. The use of Critical Policy Analysis: a trajectory perspective, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Documentary Analysis through a hermeneutic lens aims to systematically examine and illustrate the relationship between discursive practices, specific primary texts, events and the wider social and cultural structures relations and processes (the shape and direction of developments of FET historically) and the recent developments. It will analyse the historical development of the FET sectors to indicate how and why, for decades, they occupied separate spaces and what policies, strategies and legislation created the boundaries that became blurred over time and at other times would overlap. This study is an analysis of the space FET occupy and the policy discourse and legislation or lack thereof that shaped these sectors. It will conclude by presenting the structure and agencies that form the framework of the new FET structure and examine how these are emerging and forming this new sector.