Support for Skills and Education

Conference calls on the incoming Executive to work with its affiliated unions to:

• Campaign to demand the NI Executive fully restores the full Educational Maintenance Allowance payment to students pursuing education and training opportunities and aged 16-18;
• Campaign to demand the restoration of full maintenance grants for third-level and higher education students – with a particular focus on ensuring a higher uptake by those coming from lower socio-economic backgrounds and educationally-disadvantaged groups;
• Demand the conduct of a NI skills audit with a view to ensuring provision of key skills necessary to attract investment, in particular in the Manufacturing sector;
• Campaign to force the NI Executive to legislate for Living Wage minimum pay levels for all Apprentices during their apprenticeships and to oblige employers to retain apprentices who complete their training on a fair basis;
• Demand that the NI Executive moves to strictly enforce the Working Time directive for all workers, in particular for apprentices, and act to punish those employers found to be guilty of transgressing this regulation;
• Campaign to ensure the NI Executive excludes employers who fail to pay a Living Wage or who fail to take on apprentices (minimum requirement ten percent of the workforce) from all public procurement contracts and eligibility for grant-aid; and that they legislate to ensure that contractors cannot escape these obligations by sub-contracting their responsibilities.