The development of software to help students in primary and secondary school, especially learning maths and science. The software would include an algebra calculator, a science experiment simulator and an exam generator and corrector. An innovative approach would be used to develop the algebra calculator.

Introduce a Compulsory Community Service year (CCS Year) for school leavers. Instead of CAO form completion in February of the school leaving year, students complete a Compulsory Community Service form (See Appendix 1) with the help of the school’s Guidance Counsellor. Early school leavers and those in alternative placements can complete the form under the guidance of Education Welfare Officers, Youthreach tutors and other professionals working with early school leavers. The overriding principle is that the young person gives back to their community. Work experience in an area of interest may be a secondary outcome but it is not the focus of the CCS programme. Each individual will receive a payment equivalent to the current social welfare allowance for young adults. This initiative will: • Promote community spirit at a key time in a young person’s life. • Allow a rapid response to changing local and national social and economic needs. • Provide a ready made young and eage More...

Anyone who is receiving the dole should have to spend 10+ hours a week working through various eLearning programmes and content and inputting information that makes them smarter, more aware, more motivated and more employable. This could be done at home or in local community centres with computers, whereby, a large list of no-cost eLearning courses and pre-approved intelligence increasing material or at home, where people have their own computer and broadband access. A variety of simple measures could determine participation; outsourcing validation software (similar to as used by Odesk.com) that takes screen captures at intervals of x number of seconds, possibly combined with similar using a web cam that takes periodic photos and follow up questionnaires / discussions. could be used to validate people are using this appropriately to input more smart information. Some kind of learning credit scheme could be applied to people who use the system extensively in a way that tracks thei More...

We all speak English - we take it for granted. Meanwhile, countries all over the world spend large parts of their education budgets teaching English. Let's put the two together... Irish people could earn a sustainable income providing lessons in conversational English - simply by speaking face-to-face, one-on-one with foreign students, via the Internet. This could create thousands of full-time and part-time jobs in Ireland. All monies would, by definition, come from abroad, and so would represent genuine income. Furthermore, the scheme is entirely feasible, as we already have the necessary skills, technology and manpower. The proposed company (Talk To Me) would sell credits to education departments and schools worldwide, for conversations with its 'teachers' (let's call them 'trainers'). Students in foreign countries would log-in to the Talk to Me website, to practice everyday English conversation with trainers based in Ireland. Existing technology (similar to Skype) could be used More...

Ireland has a stated objective of becoming a Knowledge Society and an important characteristic of a knowledge society is a high participation of students in advanced mathematics and science. However Ireland has a number of scientific obstacles that must be overcome in order to ensure Ireland's economic advancement. A Science Support Network which would complement the national curriculum could remove these obstacles. This Network would follow and support students through their science career starting in primary school and continuing to recruitment. This Network would unite the broad Irish science community and coordinate Ireland’s wealth of resources and facilities already in place that if better utilised could greatly improve the uptake of science and higher maths, and help to propel Ireland to knowledge society status.

Make Ireland the home of the research and development (R&D) activity. Support the R&D and be perceived as the country where most of the industrial research and innovation. Convince the industries that Ireland is the country where industrial research should be based, the prototypes should be developed, and the new products tested and brought to the market. Communicate to the world that the well developed infrastructure in the country would permit high standards of living for the scientific personnel, the universities would provide high profile staff and the efficiently set up legal and political environment are ideal to develop and to license new products. Basically, offer a stable working environment and high standards of living to those who want to analyse, develop and improve the technologies of the future.

Instead of the spirit of ireland - becoming the powerhouse of electricity generation for Europe (through wind power)- have the HydroSprite Emer-ald! If we focus on developing ALL our water facilities; from grey water collection in house design (for sustainability & state coffers) to wave power (instead of landslide inducing windfarms) off our atlantic coast, we would be maximising our most plentiful natural resource...more effectively than windpower. This would create jobs in all areas and several sectors: ie our well educated science graduates, plumbers, builders, electricians and many more. The wave power part would have the effect of providing the nation with a desperately needed sustainable, desireable product to export: energy. It would do so without the same major objections which have faced the wind generation industtry such as unsightly, damaging to the local housing/population etc. The grey water collection bit would help our nations households, schools, hospitals & oth More...

My idea is a simple one. Make the Chinese language a real option for our students in school. To achieve this, my idea consists of bringing Chinese university graduates to Ireland to teach in our classrooms. I believe this is necessary so we can keep pace with the next global power and because to date we do not have a history of providing our students with this educational option. Chinese graduates are necessary to kick start this initiative.

I envisage a web trading portal which provides a central point for connecting thousands of small suppliers of Irish cultural skills and know-how, from sean-nos dance to making soda bread, with millions of people who will pay a small fee to learn those skills or experience the know-how (a micro-payments business model similar to iTunes and the App Store). The portal would provide a single common platform for delivering high quality digital content to subscribers, retaining a small percentage of the fee for technology development and marketing purposes, and passing the majority back to the content providers, thereby creating a whole new indigenous industry exporting Irish culture and thousands of new jobs as a result.

The idea is to significantly expand the apprenticeship system in Ireland to cater for a wider number of trades and people and better reflect a modern economy. The apprenticeship system is age old. However the range of trades on offer in Ireland is very limited and traditional and does not serve a diverse range of careers. The proposal is not to reinvent the wheel, but to tie in with and expand on the existing courses and traineeships already offered by FAS, aswell as learning from best practise in other European countries. Much of the cost of expanding the system is shared with employers. Additionally there are many crossovers between social welfare and education budgets. In terms of employment there would be greater opportunities within the education system. Significantly expanding on the number of trades would be a stimulus for employers to enhance their workforce. More importantly a good school system & English as a first language have served us well in attracting inward inv More...