Minutes of Proceedings

The meeting opened at 10. 08 am in public session

Apologies

Apologies are detailed above.

1. Minutes of the meetings held on 2 December 2009

Agreed: The minutes were agreed.

2. Briefing by Departmental officials on Step Ahead/ Steps to Work

Patricia McAuley, Director of the Preparation for Work Division, and Sheila McNeill, Head of Programme and Product Management and Development Branch, briefed the Committee on the Step Ahead aspect of the Steps to Work Programme. The briefing was followed by a question and answer session.

10.12 am Mr Thomas Buchanan joined the meeting
10.18 am Ms Anna Lo joined the meeting

Agreed: Members agreed that officials should provide further information on various aspects of the Programme.

3. Subordinate Legislation

• The Committee considered the following proposed Statutory Rules:

The Trade Unions Elections and Ballots (Independent Scrutineer Qualifications) Order (Northern Ireland) 2010

The Recognition and Derecognition Ballots (Qualified Persons) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2010

Agreed: Members were content for the Department’s proposals to make these Statutory Rules

• The Committee considered the following Statutory Rule which is subject to negative resolution and has been laid in the Assembly:

The Education (Student Support) (No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009.

Question put and agreed:

“That the Committee for Employment and Learning has considered Statutory Rule 2009 No.373, The Education (Student Support) (No.2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 and, subject to the ESR’s report, has no objection to the Rule.”

4. Matters Arising

• Independent Review of Economic Policy

Agreed: Members noted the responses to this Review from the Department for Employment and Learning and ANIC and agreed to forward these for information to the Committee for Enterprise Trade and Industry.

• Disputes in the Workplace

Agreed: Members noted the synopsis of response to the DEL consultation on this issue and agreed to request a briefing on the report in the New Year.

• Springvale Project: Memorandum of Response

Agreed: Members agreed to forward correspondence from the Department to the Public Accounts Committee for information.

• Update on Apprenticeships

Members noted the update provided by the Department on apprentice redundancies.

• Ministerial Briefing – further information

Agreed: Members noted information provided by the Minister in response to issues arising from his briefing to the Committee on 11 November 2009, and agreed to defer further consideration to the New Year.

• Harassment and Bullying in the Workplace

Agreed: Members noted the DEL response on this issue, carried forward from its meeting on 18 November 2009, and agreed to forward it to the Trades Unions for comment.

• Short-term contracts within the NICS

Agreed: Members noted correspondence from the Minister on the issue of 51-week contracts within the NICS and agreed to forward this letter to the Trades Unions for comment, before returning to the issue at a later date.

• Make Education Count – UCU publication

Members considered this publication and noted the forthcoming launch of the campaign.

5. Chairperson’s Business

Members noted a number of items of correspondence and agreed responses.

6. Departmental Press Notices and Press cuttings

Members noted a number of recent Departmental press notices and other extracts from the local press.

7. Any Other Business

• Northern Ireland Skills Monitoring Survey 2008 Reports

The Committee noted the above Reports from DEL.

• University of Ulster Bus Service

Agreed: The Committee agreed to forward correspondence on this issue to the Minister for Regional Development.

• Perceived conflicts between Insolvency and Employment legislation.

Agreed: Members agreed to write to the Minister to clarify the DEL role in insolvencies.

• Learn and Grow correspondence

Agreed: Members considered correspondence from the Minister and from Belfast Metropolitan College regarding funding for proposals from Learn and Grow, and agreed that the letters should be forwarded to Learn and Grow for information. The Committee further agreed that it would not enter into any further correspondence with Learn and Grow.

• CEF proposals for Apprenticeships

Members noted comments from the Department on CEF proposals for the training of apprentices in the construction industry.

• QUB spinout companies

Agreed: The Committee noted press coverage of the record turnover of the Queen’s spin-out companies and agreed to write to congratulate the university on this commercial success.

• University of Ulster STEM success

Agreed: Members agreed to write to congratulate the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems at the University’s Magee campus on the successful links between students studying STEM subjects and major national and international industrialists.

• Forward Work Programme – for information

Members noted the Committee’s Forward Work Programme for the period of December 2009 to March 2010.

8. Date, time and place of next meeting

The next meeting of the Committee will be held on Wednesday, 6 January 2010 in Room 30, Parliament Building.

The Chairperson adjourned the meeting at 11.13 am

Ms Sue Ramsey
Chairperson, Committee for Employment & Learning
6 January 2009