Education

Part-time higher education: Vital for economic success

The Open University’s John D’Arcy explains why investing in flexible forms of higher education is vital for Northern Ireland to capitalise on the potential benefits of a corporation tax cut.

Northern Ireland is sitting on the brink of an economic game-changer. If the corporation tax-varying power is devolved by 2017 and cut in line with the 12.5 per cent rate in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland can expect to receive a significant increase in the numbers of businesses scoping it out as a potential location to invest in.

However there is a very real danger that without a significant upskilling of the population, Northern Ireland will risk not seeing the resulting levels of investment that a corporation tax cut would be expected to bring.

In 2012, Oxford Economics published a report for the Department for Employment and Learning entitled ‘Preparing for a lower corporation tax environment: The impact of a lower corporation tax rate in Northern Ireland on the demand for skills, employability and research and development capacity’. This report is clear: a cut in corporation tax cut alone is not a silver bullet. It is vital that Northern Ireland has the right mix of skills that meet the needs of potential foreign direct investors, as well as the indigenous companies that would make up their local supply chain.

It is estimated that 80 per cent of the 2020 workforce has already completed their compulsory education. Therefore, meeting the skills requirements that a cut to corporation tax will bring will only be possible if there is a significant focus placed on upskilling the current workforce; relying on a steady stream of 21 year-old graduates will not suffice.

According to Oxford Economics, by 2020, 42 per cent of the population will be required to have a higher level qualification (NQF level 4+) in order to fully capitalise on a corporation tax cut. This target is going to be challenging to meet. For those people already in work, it is unlikely they can take three years away from full-time work to get a degree.

In order to avoid a glass ceiling in the benefits that Northern Ireland can draw down from a cut in corporation tax, we must act now to invest in the skills levels of the population, particularly in those subject areas that employers are going to look for qualified people in if they are even going to consider investing here.

Flexible forms of part-time higher education are designed to more readily fit alongside people’s work and family commitments. People can study with providers such as The Open University and fit their studies alongside their work commitments: a mutually beneficial situation for both the student and their employer.

The higher education debate is highly skewed towards the needs of the full-time student. However, the most pressing issue for the Northern Ireland economy is how to remove barriers and incentivise people currently in work to either upskill to higher education level, or to reskill to subject areas that are more likely to offer greater career prospects. Part-time higher education is not always front and centre in the minds of policy-makers but it may be of critical importance in unlocking the potential benefits of a cut in corporation tax.

The Open University
110 Victoria Street
Belfast, BT1 3GN
Tel: 028 9024 5025
Web: www.open.ac.uk/northern-ireland
Twitter: @oubelfast

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