To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail any actions her Department is undertaking to enhance the levels of participation in lifelong learning, given our low levels of participation relative to other regions.

My Department recognises that adult participation in education and training in the North of Ireland is comparatively low and that increasing participation is an important priority within my Skills Action Plan.

It is vital that people of all ages and backgrounds can access opportunities to develop skills, gain qualifications and progress into good jobs.

Participation is influenced by a complex set of factors spanning education, employment, health, community infrastructure and social inclusion. Responsibility for delivery is dispersed across multiple actors and no single intervention, acting in isolation, will deliver a sustained increase in participation.

My Skills Action Plan commits to working with stakeholders to increase levels of participation in lifelong learning and my officials have been taking forward a series of focussed engagements with a wide range of key stakeholders including the Alliance for Lifelong Learning to co-design approaches to support a culture of lifelong learning. This work is helping to identify barriers to participation and areas where greater alignment across the system could improve access to learning opportunities.

Recent workshops have brought together representatives from education providers, the community and voluntary sector, employers, unions, learner voices and government departments to build an understanding of current barriers to participation and to agree on ways to promote system alignment around flexible and community-based learning approaches.

My officials are developing proposals to support participation by creating an ongoing mechanism for system dialogue and alignment. This will ensure my Department maintains a strategic focus on lifelong learning and can work with partners to improve the conditions that support participation in it.