Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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Apprenticeship is a statutory-based programme of structured education and training that formally combines learning in the workplace with learning in an education or training centre. The completion of an apprenticeship prepares the participant for a specific occupation and leads to a qualification recognised under the national framework of qualifications, NFQ, from level 5 upwards. Apprentices are employed under a contract of apprenticeship. The action plan for apprenticeship sets out to make apprenticeship a valued proposition for employers and prospective apprentices, underpinned by a target of 10,000 apprentice registrations per annum by 2025. Last year there was a record number of 8,607 registrations, an increase of almost 40% on figures for the same period in 2019, the last comparable year.

When we launched the action plan we wanted to see apprenticeship become fully embedded as a mainstream route to skills development for employers and prospective apprentices. The Government will continue to ensure that learners are enabled to develop skills that will allow them to achieve the best possible outcomes. Seeing the progress to date under this plan, I am hugely encouraged that we are well on the way to achieving this. The diverse range and number of stakeholders who took part in the development of the action plan demonstrates the level of commitment to, and ambition there is for, apprenticeship in Ireland. Building on the existing excellent mix of first-hand practical experience from the worlds of further and higher education, providers and learners, industry, apprenticeship development and worker-focused advocacy, I believe that the strategies we are implementing will allow us all to reach our overall objectives under the plan. Furthermore, the national character of apprenticeship programmes, the approved standards of knowledge, skill and competence will not only be maintained but will be enhanced through this plan.

To understand how we came to this point I would like to give the House a brief overview of the history and context of our apprenticeship system, specifically the legislative basis for apprenticeships, the formation of SOLAS, the review of apprenticeship training in Ireland in 2013 and the development of post-2016 apprenticeship programmes. I will then speak in more detail about the development process and deliverables to date of the Action Plan for Apprenticeships 2021-25.

The tradition of apprenticeship in Ireland predates the foundation of the State and perceptions of apprenticeship in many areas are still based on that long tradition of craft apprenticeship. Traditionally, the system was orientated towards young males and construction-related trades have accounted for approximately 80% of all apprenticeships. Training given to apprentices was delivered on the job and under the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act 1898. The main legislation governing modern apprenticeships was set out in the 1967 Industrial Training Act, the 1987 Labour Services Act, and Sl No. 168/1997 Labour Services Act 1987 - Apprenticeship Rules, while the National Training Fund Act 2000 provided for a levy on employers to be paid into a national training fund.

The 1967 Act established An Chomhairle Oiliúna, AnCO, and gave it the power to provide for vocational training including apprenticeships, charge a levy on employers and establish a register of apprentices. It also had the power to make rules governing apprenticeships, subject to consultation with the industrial training committee representing workers, employers and the Minister for Education. An apprentice is defined in the Act as a person employed by way of apprenticeship in a designated industrial activity and includes any person to whom regulations under section 28 of the Act applied. The Act defined an "activity of industry" as any activity of commerce, trade or occupation but excluded primary production in agriculture, horticulture, fishing and any activity of a professional occupation.

To establish an apprenticeship in any occupation AnCO was required to designate the relevant activity of industry as a designated industrial activity by an industrial training order. The Act gave AnCO the power to declare that every person employed in a particular manner in a designated industrial activity by a particular employer was an apprentice for the purposes of the Act. Therefore, apprenticeships are confined to cases where AnCO, which is now SOLAS, made a formal designation of an industrial activity as an apprenticeship under an industrial training order. Before doing so, employer and employee organisations representing substantial numbers in the activity must be consulted.

The Labour Services Act 1987 provided for the dissolution of AnCO and the establishment of FÁS and the transfer of a range of AnCO functions to FÁS, including training functions. Craft apprenticeship in Ireland had been traditionally based on time served without requiring attainment of predetermined standards of competence and knowledge. In 1991, a new standards-based apprenticeship system was introduced whereby in the future a person would have to have a national craft certificate to be recognised as a craft worker. In 1997, the apprenticeship rules set out the minimum age and entry standards provided for a vision test where necessary, precluded an employer from charging a fee or other consideration for an apprenticeship and set out rules governing dismissal and termination of contract in the event of consistent failure to meet the standards required. The rules also required employers to demonstrate to FÁS that they had the capacity to provide the on-the-job training required and to provide relevant release for the off-the-job phases. The modules of training for the on and off-the-job phases were to be determined by FÁS following consultation with appropriate bodies.

The Further Education and Training Act 2013 provided for the dissolution of FÁS and the transfer of its functions to An tSeirbhís Oideachais Leanúnaigh agus Scileannna, SOLAS, which is now the body with statutory responsibility for the apprenticeship system. It is estimated that more than 105,000 people qualified via the apprenticeship route between 1967 and 2013. SOLAS was established on 27 October 2013. Its mandate is set out in the Further Education and Training Act 2013. Among other functions, such as research, monitoring and co-ordinating of further education and training provision, it also advances moneys to education and training boards and other bodies engaged in the provision of further education and training programmes. SOLAS administers the Irish apprenticeship system. At the same time as FÁS was dissolved, 16 education and training boards, ETBs, were established on the dissolution of the 33 vocational education committees. In 2014, the transfer of the former FÁS training centre network and its more than 600 staff and training facilities to the ETBs was successfully completed.

The current apprenticeship system has its roots in the 2013 review of apprenticeship training in Ireland. This reinforced the benefits of workplace learning that is supported through classroom-based learning in an education or training setting. It was this review that set out the need to expand apprenticeship beyond the 27 craft apprenticeship programmes then in place. The terms of reference of the review were to determine whether the current model of apprenticeship should be retained, adapted or replaced by an alterative model of vocational education and training for apprentices, taking into account the needs of learners and employers, the needs of the economy and the need for cost-effectiveness into the future.

The apprenticeship review took place in the context of a wider reform programme in education and training, including major structural change in further education and training, the establishment of SOLAS and the development of new national strategies in further and higher education. Written submissions came from 69 organisations and a panel of representatives of the review group and the technical group met 25 major organisations with a role or potential role in apprenticeships in Ireland. The major benefits of apprenticeship systems based on dual modes of learning, combining workplace learning in an enterprise with classroom teaching in an education or training setting, were seen as promoting better collaboration between enterprises and education and training providers, ensuring an enterprise-led role in the design and assessment of programmes, improving the competitiveness of companies, opening up rewarding careers for a large segment of the population, ensuring that theoretical learning in an education or training institution is strongly grounded in the practical experience of undertaking a real job, supplying job-ready employees and providing an ideal learning mode for those who learn best by doing.

The review group concluded there was significant scope to expand apprenticeships into a wide range of business sectors, such as ICT, retail, hospitality, business administration, medical devices, sport and leisure programmes, childcare and social care, financial services, accounting, hairdressing and beauty care. Such programmes would require a strong commitment from employers to identifying occupational needs, recruitment and payment of apprentices and joint collaboration with education and training providers in programme delivery.

In practical terms the following key recommendations were also made. The first is the establishment of an apprenticeship council, and in consultation with industry experts, professional bodies, trade unions and education and training interests, it would lead the task of expanding apprenticeship into new sectors of the economy across a range of qualification levels and mapping sectors where new apprenticeships could make a real difference. This was to be carried out in consultation with partners. The second recommendation is a national training fund, a ring-fenced fund that should be established to promote the development and operation of apprenticeships in new occupational areas.

Another recommendation is apprenticeship consortiums, which would be employer-led consortiums to identify the occupations considered to be suitable for apprenticeships that can make proposals to the apprenticeship council for funding, with a key role for employers in identifying occupational standards and in shaping the content of the curriculum in collaboration with education and training providers. There should be apprentice wage determination, specifically the rate of payment to be made to apprentices in new occupational areas to be determined by individual employers, and the Apprenticeship Council would have no role in this.

On the question of apprentice employment conditions, every apprentice would be employed under an approved contract of apprenticeship. Training should be substantial in depth and duration and the apprentice should be employed in a real job, with programmes to have a duration of not less than two years and to provide for more than 50% workplace-based learning. Recommendations were also made around areas such as recruitment, curricula, assessment, progression, incentives for employers, feedback mechanisms, labour market intelligence, statistics and evaluation, branding and awareness campaigns and traineeships. SOLAS was to maintain a national register of apprentices for the purpose of planning and management of overall apprenticeship numbers and a publicly accessible national database of employers approved for apprenticeships, based on data transfer from education and training boards, ETBs.

There were also recommendations regarding existing apprenticeship programmes. The review group recommended the curriculum for each family of trades be reviewed and updated as a matter of urgency, with programmes providing for the appropriate integration of transversal skills, particularly literacy, numeracy, maths, science and ICT. It was also recommended that the minimum entry levels needed to complete each programme successfully should be reviewed while ensuring appropriate pre-apprenticeship programmes would be made available for those unable to meet the entry requirements. A curriculum review should be carried out on the basis of families of trades.

The governance framework and operational arrangements set out in the report were designed to include real possibilities to create new apprenticeships rapidly, react to emerging needs, and target resources and participants towards sectors with high potential for growth. In June 2014, the Apprenticeship Implementation Plan was published to renew existing apprenticeships and expand apprenticeship into new sectors. The enterprise-led Apprenticeship Council was established in 2014 and, over its lifetime, oversaw the development of almost 40 new apprenticeships in sectors such as auctioneering, ICT, hospitality, logistics and biopharmaceuticals. Two calls for proposals in 2015 and 2017, combined with rationalisation of some existing craft apprenticeships, have brought the total number of available apprenticeships to 65 across all sectors of the economy, with a further 18 in development. The new programmes are delivered through consortiums of employers, employee representatives and education and training providers, departing from the craft apprenticeship system of centralised programme co-ordination through SOLAS.

In its 2013 report, the apprenticeship review group signalled a new direction for apprenticeship. Some scope was envisaged for flexibility in content and delivery within programmes, but the review group was clear on issues such as the need for national apprenticeship standards and a national apprenticeship contract, for all apprentices to be included on a national register, and for all employers to be approved for the purposes of apprenticeship. The Apprenticeship Council strongly agreed that only one apprenticeship should exist and be defined for any given occupation.

In addition to its proposed role in overseeing the development of individual apprenticeships as outlined above, the council needed to give further consideration, in consultation with the relevant agencies and stakeholders, to the overall governance and system issues arising as the new apprenticeships were developed. Key issues considered included how standards would be adopted, revised and consistently applied under a more distributed system than currently exists; how new apprenticeships would be governed, both individually and nationally; and how new education and training providers and employers would access the new apprenticeships once they were in operation. There was also the question of how the apprentice registration process and quality assurance process would work, covering training both on and off the job, as well as the roles and responsibilities of the various players involved in apprenticeships.

The council was also required to review financial considerations such as development, capital, running and system costs. In 2015, the council invited proposals for new apprenticeship programmes from a consortium of enterprise, professional bodies and education and training providers. The Apprenticeship Council received 86 separate submissions and, following evaluation, 25 proposals were approved for detailed development. These covered the areas of manufacturing and engineering, tourism and sport, financial services, information technology, transport distribution and logistics, and business administration and management. A similar call for proposals in 2017 led to the approval of a further 26 programmes for continued development in areas such as horticulture, sales, animation, engineering, farming, ICT, logistics, hairdressing and recruitment. To date, a total of 40 new apprenticeship programmes have been developed to completion and successfully launched since 2016.

The Action Plan to Expand Apprenticeship and Traineeship in Ireland 2016 - 2020 set a target of 31,000 cumulative new apprentice registrations by the end of 2020. A total of 25,815 registrations was reached, supported by strong recovery of craft apprentice registrations. The new apprenticeship base had grown strongly as a result of the new apprenticeships launched during that time, providing a solid foundation for increased awareness and recruitment in the following years. A programme of review of all craft was delivered, curricula was revised and modernised, and an updated framework for quality assurance was developed.

The 2016 action plan included a commitment to review pathways to participation in apprenticeship in Ireland. The first review was carried out in 2018 and made recommendations to increase participation in apprenticeship by diverse groups; launch an online apprenticeship "jobs market" to increase visibility of opportunities for all potential apprentices; create new pathways via pre-apprenticeship courses around the country; promote the bursary incentive with employers; and promote diverse pathways to participation in apprenticeship in the 2018 to 2020 Generation Apprenticeship campaign.

Progress was made in a number of areas since the 2018 Review of Pathways to Participation in Apprenticeship, but there remained a number of outstanding areas of action in terms of baseline data collection. Developing areas of good practice were evident, including through the TU Dublin Access to Apprenticeship programme, all-female tech apprenticeship classes through FIT, and the rolling out of more than 500 pre-apprenticeship places in further education and training as part of the post-leaving certificate reform programme.

This Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 was delivered at a significant juncture in the history of the Irish apprenticeship system. For the first time, learnings from both the traditional craft apprenticeship model and the post-2016 apprenticeship model were utilised to inform the future direction of the system. The plan seeks to provide a single system for the future that builds on the well-established strengths of craft apprenticeship and the learnings from five years of consortium-led apprenticeship in this country. The timing of the plan is also significant, having been developed during the period of the Covid-19 crisis, which has had a heavy impact on the delivery of craft apprenticeships as well as apprentices in sectors such as hospitality.

The plan is heavily informed by stakeholder input, including in excess of 60 written submissions, additional internal consultations and an online survey of all registered apprentices. In addition, targeting small and medium enterprise employers, the nine regional skills forum managers, in collaboration with the Department, undertook a survey of 340 small and medium enterprises to better understand the perspectives of small businesses on apprenticeship and how the particular challenges they face in engaging with apprenticeship might be addressed. Inputs from all three strands of the consultation process are reflected throughout the plan.

Specific proposals for change have been considered in conjunction with broader policy requirements and priorities in identifying those actions that will be required to deliver on the objectives set out for the apprenticeship system of 2025. The five key objectives we have identified are: a high-quality and innovative approach; employer-driven responses; apprenticeship for all; a valued option; an a single, coherent system.

Significant progress is being made in realising the ambition for apprenticeships set out in the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025, which was published in April of last year. The further development and mainstreaming of apprenticeships through the creation of a single unified apprenticeship system has a key role to play in meeting Ireland's skill needs in a manner that presents a valued proposition for apprentices and employers alike.

Key to the delivery of the ambition set out in the action plan is a new organisational architecture, involving the National Apprenticeship Office and the National Apprenticeship Alliance. The office will have-----

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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The Minister of State's time is up. There will be a Government reply at the end of statements.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I will finish my contribution then.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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We can all acknowledge that, in terms of the quality of the instructors and the dedication and commitment of the apprentices, we have a world-class system, but it is held together by the apprentices and instructors.

It happens in spite of rather than because of Government policy.

People who complete apprenticeship programmes in the State are highly valued by employers at home and abroad, as we all know. This is very much a testament to their hard work, their talent and the quality and commitment of the instructors working within a system that is effectively broken. Due to a lack of care and investment, successive Governments have failed to increase the number of apprentices in the system and expand the types of apprenticeships on offer in line with other advanced economies. Thanks to the dedication of people involved in the delivery of apprenticeships, our system has continued to perform and deliver high-quality tradespeople and other professionals. However, too few people get apprenticeships and they miss out on training and career prospects as a result.

We constantly hear of skills shortages in certain sectors but there is no labour shortage. There are thousands of men and women of all ages who would be delighted to undertake an apprenticeship if the opportunity were there. This is especially true of young people. I know from contacts I have had with constituents in Balbriggan, Skerries, Swords and across north County Dublin that young people would bite your hand off for an opportunity. I read last week that the apprentice development manager at the engineering contractor Mercury said young people were not applying to become electricians, plumbers and pipe-fitters because they did not want to get up early in the morning. He called this a fact but I would like to see the information behind this because it is not my experience of young people. In fact, if we listen to an Teachta Conway-Walsh and study the important survey she has undertaken, and I hope the Minister of State is paying attention to that, we hear from people who are struggling within the system but who want to be able to go through that system and do the hard work associated with apprenticeships. They say every generation idolises its own, and this seems to be a case of older people lecturing younger people and saying “It wasn’t like that in my day”.

In many ways, though, it is not like it used to be anymore. With skyrocketing rental and housing costs, excessive insurance premiums, fuel hikes, energy prices, escalating homelessness, attacks on trade unions, poverty and economic inequality, insecure jobs and short-term contracts, no pensions, low pay or being trapped on apprentices’ wages for months or years longer than necessary because the State has not provided adequate off-the-job training capacity, it is not like it once was. What are the good people at Mercury’s views on these issues? Perhaps these issues have a lot to do with the issues they say they are facing. Blaming young people is a very lame and tired excuse. It is past time the State and companies like Mercury looked at themselves with regard to these issues and looked at their own role.

Where apprentices are taken on, they often find they are trapped on apprentices’ wages for months or years longer than necessary because there is no adequate off-the-job training. These issues are a shame because mounting evidence shows the positive impact access to apprenticeships can have on school-to-work transition, youth unemployment and economic growth. As we exit the pandemic, it is vital we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. Youth employment needs to be at the heart of our post-Covid recovery and this is where expanding the apprenticeship system fits in. However, it has to be a decent system and one that delivers for the apprentice. Apprenticeships have always offered people an alternative path to a qualification and a job. An apprenticeship allows students to work and learn at the same time, and they come away with a tangible skill that allows them to contribute to the workforce and to broader society. It is crucial to ensure the apprenticeship system is resilient in order that it can continue to have a positive impact on education and the job prospects of young people.

Overall numbers of apprenticeships remain low, as does participation of women in apprenticeships, particularly in construction. This has to change. There is also a need to increase access for people with disabilities and other marginalised groups, such as Travellers. As the world of work changes, we must ensure a revised and revitalised apprenticeship programme is in place to provide opportunities for our young people. In that regard, we also need to develop a strategy to deliver a robust, high-wage, high-growth and high-productivity economy, the sort of economy where apprenticeships flourish. The solution has to be the Government working with industry, the higher education sector, banking and, crucially, the trade union movement to develop an indigenous industrial strategy that focuses on creating a strong and diverse economic base of SMEs, microbusinesses and family businesses, operating domestically and internationally, which provide apprenticeships and well-paying, unionised jobs in manufacturing and engineering, ICT, green technology and energy, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, medical technology, food and drink, and other growing sectors.

The Minister of State should be listening to what Connect Trade Union is saying in regard to apprenticeships and the current proposals. The system that was in place worked well, but it is obvious from what has happened in other jurisdictions that, while the road the Government is going down will result in an improvement, the Government still needs to listen to the people who are on the front line. That is effectively Connect Trade Union because it knows the system inside and out. It would serve apprentices and employers well to listen to those who have this very good and valuable experience.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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It might surprise the Minister of State to hear me be complimentary of the Government's efforts in this field. Many, including me, were unsure as to whether breaking up the Department of Education and establishing a new Department was a good move. However, in fairness to the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, and the Minister, Deputy Harris, I think they have made it work. I feel they have placed a large emphasis on the area of apprenticeships and they have done good work in this space in the past two years. When work is done, when systemic issues have been tackled and when new ministerial responsibility has been put around it, that is to be commended. It also means that, when it comes to issues of apprenticeships, higher education and further education, the Department is not swamped with other education issues and it can focus on this. This kind of debate is a testament to that.

That is not to say there are not issues that need to be addressed. Apprenticeships in the public sector are long overdue, so that is a positive. The difficulty with the model is that, again, it appears to be employer-led and there is no indication that is necessarily going to change any time soon. I believe councils and local authorities are key to this, including those in my own area, Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council. Apprenticeships within councils will be crucial to allowing young people to move into a field of work, and that has to be expanded over the coming period. We also need to build skills for the new green economy. The numbers the Minister of State has outlined look well, but if we scratch the surface of the numbers, 60% of all of those apprenticeships are in two trades. We need to expand the type of apprenticeships we are resourcing. Building skills in the green economy and allowing the public sector to lead the way in apprenticeships and in building capacity is what we need to focus on. The national apprenticeship office looks great but it is far from being fully established because of staffing issues, which is something we need to focus on.

It has been said that one of the fallouts from the crash was that developers and the industry prefer to sublet jobs, as opposed to taking on apprentices, because apprenticeship is a four-year commitment. When this area is so employer-led, we tend to make mistakes in that way and we are not allowing the system to be led by the experience of the apprentice. The experience is that in year one of their given craft, an apprentice, for example, a carpenter, can earn as little as €6.84 an hour, with those in year two earning only €10.26 an hour, both of which are below the national minimum wage.

I believe the Government has taken this area seriously. The division of the Department was a good move and the fact we are even having this debate is testament to the fact we now have a Minister of State we can talk to in this area when that would not have been possible previously. However, our belief is we need to move to having apprenticeships that are going to serve the green economy, and we need to have it done in such a way that apprenticeships do not have such poor wages, that they are not dominated by the old traditional trades, and that the local authorities are seen as key to future growth in this area.

The new national apprenticeship office must be supported to do its work. If there are staffing issues or if it needs more legislative underpinning, we need to address that quickly.

Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I echo Deputy Ó Ríordáin's sentiments regarding the establishment of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. It has given a focus, particularly on apprenticeships, that was not there heretofore. We are heading into a phase in which the Government will be rolling out the largest retrofitting scheme in the history of the State, which will involve construction, retrofitting of houses, installation of insulation and so on. It is important to acknowledge the crucial role apprentices will play in that in the near future. I am as guilty as anybody else of assuming that when we talk about apprentices, we are referring to plumbers, electricians and other traditional trade and craft apprentices. However, there is much more to apprenticeships than that. There are apprenticeships in accounting, business-related courses and so on.

Having spent 15 years teaching in a vocational school, I would like to see a greater emphasis on engaging with students at second level and encouraging them as best we can at least to consider an apprenticeship for their further education. This is something the Minister of State and his Department might look into facilitating. It is important to acknowledge that apprenticeships are a type of third level education. We frequently see them dismissed as something that can be done in the event that people miss out on some other type of course or job on which they might have had their sights set. Apprenticeships are far more than that and we must emphasise this point, particularly at second level. The days are gone, and long may it continue, when there was a snobbery around apprenticeships as being for people who did not make the cut.

We need to acknowledge what the Government has done so far in this area. A total of €34 million was invested under last year's budget to develop new apprenticeship programmes. Eight such programmes were launched in 2020 and 2021. That said, I would like to see greater emphasis on apprenticeships in the areas of online safety, cybersecurity and other aspects of the IT sector. Given the prevalence of cyberterrorism and online scams to which people are falling victim, this is an area in which we really need to engage in promotion in order to encourage growth and participation.

There is an issue around gender imbalance within the apprenticeship model. The president of Munster Technological University, MTU, openly acknowledged at a recent appearance before the education committee that the university is really struggling to get women into traditional apprenticeships. It is an ongoing issue. I understand that out of the current apprentice population of 24,000 nationally, only 1,500 are female. There clearly is work to be done and ground to be made up in this regard. I acknowledge that the Government has made funding available for female participation, including a grant of more than €2,500 to encourage employers to take on women, particularly in trades that are mostly dominated by men. That is welcome.

We need to consider the issue of capacity when we talk about getting greater numbers of apprentices into the system. There is a difficulty locally, as we heard at the education committee from representatives of various technological universities in recent months. I can speak particularly about MTU in Cork, where programmes have been oversubscribed over the years. There was an effort to accommodate too many people in an outdated building on a fairly restricted site. We need to get the right investment in capital infrastructure to ensure we can take on the volume of apprentices we are saying is needed.

The provision under the national training fund, NTF, is relevant when we are talking about the future of funding for higher education. Serious consideration must be given to how we will meet the shortfall over the next few years, which I understand is approximately €300 million. Will the Minister of State address whether employers are likely to see some kind of increase in their levy to the NTF into the future?

Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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As somebody who served an apprenticeship many years ago, I know how challenging it can be. Apprenticeships are technically challenging and, after one qualifies, some of the work can be physically challenging as well. However, there is no doubt that an apprenticeship is a very good educational opportunity that provides very transferable skills. Apprentices who have done four years of training are highly valued in a job, whereas someone who graduates from third level after four years still has to go through a significant learning process. That is not to compare the two types of qualifications. Obviously, people can do an apprenticeship and then go on to third level or, alternatively, one can go to third level and do an apprenticeship after that. Some people follow either of those paths and it can work very well by giving a really good balance of practical and academic skills.

I will focus on two areas in respect of the apprenticeship programme. First, given the massive demand for skills and capacity constraints in everything we are trying to do across construction, design and every aspect of infrastructural provision, there may be soundings or ideas around shortening the duration of apprenticeships to three years or less. I am opposed to any such change. As an apprentice, one completes academic and technical components, perhaps for three months at a time, and then on-the-job training, before returning for further technical training and then going back on to the job to practise those skills. That whole four-year process cannot be rushed. People need to learn by doing. When apprentices complete their four years of training, they are sent out as tradespeople who will go on to train other people and have others learning by their work example and work ethic. We must make sure apprentices have the best training possible before they go on to be mentors or team leaders to future trainees. Therefore, I am opposed to any move to shorten, condense or simplify apprenticeships. If we want good people and to ensure we will have other good people into the future, we must take the time to train them properly.

The second aspect of the system is that we seem to concentrate on apprenticeships being something people do straight after school, at 18 years of age. Applications for apprenticeships are now included in the CAO system, which is a positive move, but it is important to emphasise that there are opportunities for mature apprentices as well. People who have worked for a number of years and have picked up a number of job and life skills may want to come back into the training system. One of the barriers to this is that the wages for apprentices can be quite low at the start, which may not be as much of a problem for younger people. Apprenticeships involve training and work, for which one gets paid, but it is a matter of working one's way up. This may be a barrier for somebody who works in an organisation and has the opportunity to do an apprenticeship. We need to ensure people in that situation maintain their current pay grade while they do the training. Provision for this would be an investment by the State in people's education and future and would facilitate the capacity-building we need to do over the coming years. Enabling mature apprenticeships is something to which consideration should be given.

This approach would fit in well with our objectives on just transition. There are jobs, industries and workplaces that will see a decrease in demand. The work just will not be there. Facilitating mature apprenticeships would allow people to transfer skills across different areas. In the case of internal combustion engine mechanics, for example, they could start transferring their skills over to electric vehicles. All of the older polluting industries will need to change or close down because there will not be the demand for their services. We need to offer people in those sectors the opportunity to do apprenticeships that will enable them to change course or upskill. There must be no financial barrier to their doing so.

It is training for their future to allow them contribute to what Ireland needs at the moment, which is greater capacity in construction, trades and across other sectors. I ask the Minister of State to consider ensuring that apprenticeships remain as four-year apprenticeships and that the training is not in any way diluted. I ask him to consider the role of mature apprenticeships to try to encourage people to get involved in that aspect of it.

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and apprentices, who are not covered by minimum wage legislation, are struggling with the rising cost of tools, travel, college fees and rent. Sinn Féin conducted a survey of apprentices and the results are shocking. A motor mechanic in Kildare who responded said, “Ireland is a hard place to live as a young person and even harder as an apprentice. Especially the first year, particularly with the rising fuel costs. Imagine working 2 days to pay for fuel to put in your car to work for 5 days.” Deputy Conway-Walsh referred to this person in her speech. A plumber from Kildare who responded said “A thousand euro in fees for phase 4 and again for phase 6, trying to keep a van on the road with outrageous costs and I won’t even start about the cost of housing when we’re on a low wage.”

We are in the middle of a housing crisis. Sinn Féin is committed to delivering the largest public house-building programme in the history of the State. We will also need a significant input of skills if we are to manage the necessary climate action and a just transition. My colleague Councillor Noel Connolly brought a motion to Kildare County Council last year seeking to directly employ staff to maintain and renovate housing. The reply was that the council was considering taking on apprentices. We are almost a year on from that motion and still no action has been taken. The council often claims it does not have resources for extra staff. The Government must invest in apprentices. We need to move away from the "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude.

The council also struggles to get contractors, particularly for smaller jobs. It has taken to grouping small jobs together for quotes which delays the repairs further. Often there is an older or vulnerable person in urgent need of that repair and it is not good enough that they have to wait for weeks in some cases for a plumbing or electrical issue to be resolved. It is bad enough that they cannot afford the cost of the electricity, but when it is not working it is even worse.

Sinn Féin in government will set more ambitious targets to increase the number of apprentices. We will increase the number of apprentices employed by the public sector and State agencies. We will also incentivise the employment of apprentices in the private sector by leveraging public procurement through the use of apprenticeship clauses in State contracts. We will also work towards the development of an all-Ireland apprenticeship system. We will abolish fees for apprentices to take the pressure off struggling workers. We need to do something.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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World Skills Ireland has warned that we need urgent investment in apprenticeship infrastructure if the Government is serious about addressing the chronic skills shortages in areas like construction.

Deputy Ó Laoghaire and I recently met representatives of MTU in Cork where we heard about its ambitious plans for apprenticeships. We also heard that it is teaching apprentices in old, dilapidated buildings and temporary accommodation. If the Government is serious about getting more apprentices, it needs to fund colleges like MTU to deliver them.

The Minister of State has probably heard me speak before about the need for a campus on the north side of Cork and the need for third level education on the north side. I fully believe our universities need to expand, which is why a purpose-built apprenticeship centre on Cork’s north side is needed. Many people from the north side are doing apprenticeships and many more are interested. It would be very beneficial to have a state-of-the-art facility to send a real message of confidence in communities and apprentices. Currently they are being housed on a college campus that is beyond capacity and not fit for purpose. We are short 27,000 workers to meet the Government’s housing targets and the only way to deliver this is by real investment in apprenticeships.

People cannot afford to live on nothing. They need proper wages. The average rent in Cork city is now over €1,500 a month. A first-year construction industry apprentice earns €246 a week. Is it any wonder that people are not going into apprenticeships? Who can afford to live on €246 a week? How is that sending a message that the Government values our apprentices?

When I was preparing for this debate, I thought of the years of austerity and the hundreds of thousands of people who emigrated, many of them construction workers. I have friends and family in Australia and America. Those people should have stayed here but left because of failed policies by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Those parties now need to get the policies right.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I am grateful for the opportunity to speak today on this important subject. I recognise the work that has been undertaken by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on the issue of apprenticeships. My contribution is not intended for the Minister of State but more to have a discussion about apprenticeships on the whole. Who they are for? Who may they not be for and who benefits from them? I am somewhat cautious when the Construction Industry Federation points to a skills gap and I know very well who it is it intends to fill that gap.

In Ireland we have a certain cohort of people who take up university places and jobs in the highest sectors. There is another cohort of people who are expected to fill in within the low-wage economy or else take on apprenticeships which I think are really valuable. When I left school aged 18, I became an apprentice plumber. I was told I could go anywhere in the world given that we were in the middle of a boom. Within a year or two, I along with 18 other people on the site were all let go and inevitably they were spread throughout the world.

Many people benefit from apprenticeships and for some it is clearly a very prestigious profession. However, they are also jobs that are at risk from digitalisation, automation and what might happen in the economy. How are we future-proofing the sectors the Minister of State highlighted in his contribution? The employers' federation believes we have serious skills gaps. However, skills gaps will not just be filled by bringing apprentices into the city and paying them €246 a week when we know they cannot afford rent. We need to take an holistic approach and identify the barriers to people entering these industries and apprenticeships.

It also goes beyond that. What is the future in 20 years' time for an 18-year-old today undertaking an apprenticeship as a mechanic, electrician or plumber? It is inevitable that in 20 years' time that profession will be vastly different. Therefore, at 38 years of age that person's job may simply be gone and taken up by artificial intelligence or robotics. How can we future-proof this?

Ireland is probably uniquely placed to benefit from expanding technology apprenticeships into areas along the lines of tech apprenticeships. We have some of the biggest multinational corporations in the world on our doorstep, some of them within a mile of where we are now. I refer to companies such as Google, Microsoft and others. They are all around us, but are they playing their part in supporting young people to be ready for the jobs of tomorrow?

In many of these organisations, the minimum education requirements inevitably require third level degrees and beyond. That excludes a significant cohort of people predominantly from working-class communities from being able to enter them. If we want to get apprenticeships right, we need to future-proof them. Of course, we need the jobs of today. We are facing major challenges in construction. We cannot imagine that will last forever. How do we get young people, particularly from working-class low-income communities into those jobs?

In The Irish Timeslist of feeder schools showing who gets to go to third level education, inevitably the top places are held by those who come from the most prestigious parts of the country. For example, in excess of 99% of students from Dublin 6W get to go on to university. Not that many people need to go on to university and we should not expect them to. We should not just expect apprenticeship schemes to go to people from working-class communities. That needs to be factored into our considerations.

Some people do not want to get involved in apprenticeships because the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 excludes apprentices. That is something the Government can correct.

When we consider the confluence of crises that exist in the country at the moment, it is impossible for an apprentice who is working for €246 per week to afford rent, childcare, where it exists, or the cost of living. All of these factors matter. We need to be a lot more innovative. We need to be future-proofing our economy. We should not just expect that people from particular locations will go on and fill these jobs and when the economy turns and those jobs are lost to automation or whatever other developments happen in the future, they will simply go back to being underemployed and not utilised. There is a job of work to be done and I hope we can do it.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the strides that have been made in respect of apprenticeships and the apprenticeship system. At the start of this year, we saw a record uptake in the number of apprenticeships, especially among women. Last month, new gender-based funding was introduced for apprenticeship employees, funding which is worth over €2,000 to them. The new apprenticeship scheme opens up further opportunities for women and will, hopefully, increase the numbers that will take up apprenticeship programmes.

The main issues we have at present relate to the uptake of apprenticeship programmes by all genders, the registration process and the lack of available places at college level for apprentices to continue the stages of their programme. I have been contacted by numerous businesses in Carlow over the past year. They have found it very difficult to recruit apprentices and have also found it difficult to register them as part of the programme. There seem to be issues around the registration process and obtaining registration speedily. Can this be looked at urgently? I have also been contacted by apprentices who have found it difficult to secure places in college as part of their programme, which has stalled their progression to the next stages of their apprenticeships. That has meant that a normal four-year programme is taking far longer. A few apprentices who have had that experience have attended my office. I believe both of these issues are urgent. We are in a housing crisis and have a construction worker shortage. Addressing these issues will increase the number of apprentices and workers available.

The biggest issue I find when I speak to young men and women who want an apprenticeship is that the pay is very bad. The cost of living, including the cost of fuel and petrol, and even the price of lunch, means that those apprentices are not coming out with anything. We need to consider a funding campaign.

I am a mother of four children and I know college is not for everyone. Carlow now has a technological university, as we know, and we are proud of that. Apprenticeships are valuable. There is not enough communication in schools. Not enough information is provided to children at a young age. We need to go into schools and tell them about the apprenticeships available and the need for them. We need apprentices now more than ever. We need a campaign that goes into primary schools, perhaps fifth and sixth class, and into secondary schools and tells those students about apprenticeships and the wonderful work that can be done with apprenticeships and the need for them. We are crying out for apprentices. I always feel there is a lack of information. While we all think college is great and welcome it, not everyone wants to go to university. It is important we get the balance right. I ask that we consider a campaign.

The funding and payment for young men and women who want to go into apprenticeships must be addressed. If we could move on that, it would play a big part.

Carlow College, St. Patrick's is great. I am always suggesting it would be ideal to do an extensive apprenticeship programme for young men and women and encourage them into apprenticeships. I am fully supportive of the new system and the new scheme. We still have to make some changes but at least we have made a start and, hopefully, we will get more work done.

Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I am glad to have the opportunity to contribute to this debate. The Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins; the Minister, Deputy Harris; and the Department are doing excellent work to construct a better future for our young people and notably providing a pathway to education or further learning for everyone. That is welcome. I welcome the apprenticeship action plan, which will ensure we have a modern apprenticeship system that reflects contemporary Irish society. It will support learners and employers undertaking an apprenticeship programme. I often think it is a great shame that in our ambition to champion higher and further education, we have created a society that places too much emphasis on the university route and less value on other routes. That is why I think it is important to make young people fully aware of the apprenticeship routes available to them.

Last week was construction skills week and to mark it, I joined the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Heather Humphreys, and Councillors Baby Pereppadan and Brian Lawlor at a special Intreo construction jobs, apprenticeship and training expo in Tallaght Stadium. It was jammers. When I arrived there was a queue outside that stretched right around the building. It was a queue of young people waiting to get inside and start an exciting new career. It was wall-to-wall with exhibits. Third level courses around traineeships and apprenticeships were being promoted. Companies were enticing people to consider joining their team with everything from autonomous vehicle simulators to traditional pitches. It was incredible to see that level of enterprise, innovation and interest. Well done to Siobhán, Adrienne and all their team. Their idea of hosting this unique event in South Dublin County Council got young people straight into apprenticeships and gave many others that first key step to taking up a trade – their safe pass.

There are 60 apprenticeship programmes available nowadays which all lead to valuable qualifications in finance and accountancy, as laboratory technicians, in engineering, as heavy vehicle mechanics, in healthcare and much more. The plan is to expand these types of programmes and increase the number of apprenticeships to 10,000 per year by 2025. It is an ambitious target but I welcome it as it will also help to deliver the housing and climate targets set by the Government. I ask the Minister to consider whether any of the apprenticeships could be turned into traineeships.

At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage last week, we had a presentation from representatives of the Construction Industry Federation who suggested that some skilled tradespeople, bricklayers for example, could learn their trade even quicker than through the current schemes if they were given the opportunity to do it through a traineeship. Getting trained and skilled people out on site, earning a living and building much-needed houses must be our priority.

New yearly grants will help employers to take on apprentices and speed up this process dramatically. Grants are being topped up for those employing a lone parent, a person with a disability or a person living in direct provision, which is welcome and progressive. There is also an additional bursary for employers who take on a female apprentice in a male-dominated sector or vice versa.That is key and innovative. It is at the cutting edge when it comes to diversity and inclusion.

There is enormous demand for skilled workers across Ireland. Our improvement to apprentice programmes will give apprentices the knowledge and experience to make them more qualified candidates when seeking permanent employment. Apprenticeships are a great way to get a foot in the door of many different industries and should certainly be a consideration for people who feel that traditional third level education is not for them.

I am passionate about the fact that apprenticeships and alternative pathways are something that our schools should be promoting. After all, apprenticeships lead to nationally recognised qualifications on the national framework of qualifications from level 5 right up to PhD level. The Minister, Deputy Harris, is also very passionate about this and he discussed these issues with many students at St. Joseph's College recently. I know he is pushing the message that college or university is not the only pathway for students leaving school and there are many options that can lead you to the career you want. He is absolutely right.

I recently accompanied the Minister and EU Commissioner on a visit to Youthreach Clondalkin in my constituency. It was an opportunity to showcase the brilliant work they are doing in a centre in the heart of Clondalkin. It was clear from meeting the students in Clondalkin that they are being supported to pursue all kinds of training, apprenticeships, work experience and qualifications. I have no doubt from chatting with them that they have very bright futures ahead. I was impressed by the range of work showcased by the students, from communications and mathematics to graphic design, IT, customer service and culinary arts. Youthreach Clondalkin is a hive of activity. I particularly enjoyed hearing from past students who shared their experience of Youthreach and explained how it helped them get to where they are today. Youthreach is yet another example of alternative education that should be seriously considered by students alongside apprenticeships.

I am delighted that as a society, we are becoming more open to the many pathways to success in life and the opportunities that apprenticeships can create.

As I have said, the direct route to university is not for everyone and it is so important that students are aware of all the options out there, from level 8 degrees to apprenticeships and PLC courses. We have an unquestioning belief that academic success is directly related to career success but that is not always the case. Students are led to believe that they must achieve a certain number of points in their leaving certificate or go to a particular college to be successful later in life and that if they do not attain those points, they will not get where they want to go. That is not the case.

A horrific amount of stress and strain is placed on the shoulders of our young people as large numbers of students compete for a small number of places. More than 90% of children remain in full-time education until the leaving certificate and 80% of that number apply for a college place through the CAO system every year. More than 65% of each year's cohort go to college through that route. Ireland has among the highest participation rates in third level education in the whole OECD. While this is fantastic, it also speaks to our focus on the college and university route which can be suffocating for students, especially those who do not aspire to go that way. While this is not the remit of the Minister's Department, it also speaks to the need for leadership in the context of reform of the leaving certificate. I am glad this has begun to be debated seriously in this House in recent years because it is absolutely needed.

We must move beyond young people having conversations with their parents, guardians and teachers about the CAO and the points system and start discussing the alternative paths students can take to get where they want to be. We need to allow our young people and their families to discuss what they would like to do with their life rather than just what they want to do in college.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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We desperately need more apprentices and we need to make apprenticeships and trades attractive to people in order to address the problems that our society is facing at the moment. Across the board, the lack of skills necessary to solve big social problems is enormous. Most obviously, there is a desperate need for qualified tradespeople, and that means apprentices, to build the houses we need and to refurbish vacant and derelict properties in order to solve the housing crisis. We also need them in the context of climate change to retrofit homes. Hundreds of thousands of homes need to be retrofitted but we do not have enough skilled people to do this work. We also need them to build new schools.

There are so many other areas where we are desperately in need of talent but we have shortages. Hundreds of thousands of people were working in construction during the Celtic tiger period. However, because of the disastrous approach taken to housing in this country, whereby we let developers, speculators and banks dictate housing development, the housing sector collapsed, along with the rest of the economy and people fled out of construction sector and did not ever want to go back to it. A lot of them are now working as taxi drivers and so on because they did not want to go back into construction. The precariousness and lack of security in many of these areas are critical. In that context, we need a State construction company and our local authorities should be taking on apprentices to train in the areas we need. In this way, the local authorities will have the capacity to build, refurbish and do all of the other things local authorities do in terms of infrastructure.

Lip service is now being paid to the need for apprentices and while some improvements have been made in terms of expanding the number of apprenticeship places, huge problems remain. Many apprentices are suffering extreme economic hardship. Many of them are older, with families, mortgages and other financial obligations. They have transport costs and have to pay €1,000 in fees. Those fees should be scrapped immediately. When they are going to college they do not have access to SUSI grants. They should have the same supports when they are in college as everybody else. Apprentices must also be given college places near where they live. If they are working and paying rent in Dublin but given a college place in Donegal, orvice versa, they may have to get digs and pay for transport to get there. Some apprentices may be getting the benefit of sectoral agreements so their pay is not too bad, but others are not. Mechanics, for example, are particularly poorly paid as apprentices because the sectoral agreements do not really work for them. In many parts of the country apprentices are on poverty wages. They are working for less than the minimum wage and do not have the supports necessary to carry them through. We need to provide those supports. We need to ensure that their college places are near where they live, get rid of fees and give SUSI supports to apprentices.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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A genuine apprenticeship programme should be a crucial part of our higher education system and we should be expanding apprenticeships to other sectors. As with other forms of education, we should also challenge the financial barriers that exist to someone taking up an apprenticeship. The then Labour Party and Fine Gael Government scandalously introduced apprenticeship fees in 2014. These so-called registration fees can cost students thousands of euro and should be scrapped.

We also need to ensure that apprenticeship schemes are not used as a source of cheap labour for bosses. Apprentices should have full employment rights and equal pay for the work they are doing. This is not what we are seeing with the new JobBridge 2.0 scheme, the so-called work placement experience programme, WPEP. Two weeks ago, an apprenticeship scheme for bar workers was launched, where workers would do paid bar work and spend one day a week in class learning other skills relating to bar management. While there are some concerns around this, at least the workers are getting paid for their work and will come out with a level 7 qualification. At the same time, bars are advertising on Government websites to get unpaid bar workers on the JobBridge 2.0 scheme. Rody Bolands bar in Rathmines is looking for a bartender to work 30 hours per week for six months, completely unpaid. All the worker will get is €3.43 an hour welfare top-up paid by the taxpayer, with nothing from the employer. Bolands is not alone. The Brandon House Hotel in Wexford is looking for a food and beverage assistant on the JobBridge scheme as well. We need to ban-----

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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On a point of order, the naming of people outside the House is not in order.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Deputy Durkan. I ask Deputy Murphy not to name people outside of the House.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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We need to ban these kinds of unpaid, scam internships which are undermining real jobs. We need investment in real jobs and decent apprenticeship schemes with real qualifications for workers.

We also see it in the food service industry. The multibillion euro company Aramark, according to the website, is looking for seven unpaid JobBridge interns to be so-called food service associates in the workplace canteens it runs. This includes a position in Mayo University Hospital canteen. The State will be paying Aramark to provide catering services-----

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is naming institutions. On a point of order again, the continuous naming of institutions-----

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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This is on the public record-----

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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-----by name or in such a way as to make them identifiable is in breach of Standing Orders.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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This information is on the public record.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It is not on the record.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Deputy. Please be mindful of your obligations.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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This company will have unpaid staff, subsidised by the State, working there and then will be paid by the State. Those workers will be responsible for preparing and serving food, and washing dishes and the company will not pay a single cent. Again, the workers will just get €3.43 per hour in a welfare top-up from the State. This is not just happening in our hospitals. I could name a whole bunch of other companies but I do not have time. This particular company has a turnover of €13 billion and can afford to pay its staff a wage.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I welcome this debate. We have made huge progress in apprenticeships in recent years. Back in 2015, there were just 8,000 people in apprenticeships. By 2019, this had risen to 16,000 and today the figure is 23,000. This is a dramatic transformation.

Contrary to what the two Deputies now leaving the Chamber have just said, the quality of the apprenticeships is increasingly being improved and strengthened as we go. Over 12 of the 60 apprenticeships are at level 7 or higher, with some at levels 8, 9 and 10. These are high-quality programmes for improving people's careers.

The failure to reform the leaving certificate over many years has constrained our ability to develop this really important part of the future of work. The OECD has described Ireland's leaving certificate as wholly unfit for purpose and as designing an education for people that would not fit in with the world they were entering. The OECD, the foremost authority, said this about our leaving certificate. We have been too slow to reform it. I welcome the reform that is now starting and I hope it is accelerated.

Blended learning and earning as you learn are a great way to learn, not only when one leaves school but also as part of a lifelong learning strategy. We need to see more employers buy into this approach. Even at 23,000, it is less than 1% of the 2.5 million people who are now employed in this economy. The latter figure is an extraordinary achievement but the 1% must significantly change over the coming years. We need to sell that message.

It is disappointing that the public service has been among the slowest to enter the apprenticeship field. The public service has many needs across health and other sectors where we could see the development of hands-on learning, for example, to help children and older people with special needs. There are so many areas where the apprenticeship would fit in perfectly. People would be learning through practical experience. The grant is welcome but the Minister of State needs to do a deep dive into these sectors, including the multinational companies which have been slow to step up and participate in these apprenticeship programmes. The Minister of State and Minister are on the right track but I strongly urge them to rattle the cage of the public service and some of the traditional employers and sectors that have not bought into this.

It is welcome that the CAO now provides a link to the apprenticeship scheme but we need to go beyond that. I welcome the announcement today that the Department is seeking to develop blended courses between further education and training and the higher education sector, so there is a more seamless process.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this timely and important debate. Today, we have effectively reached full employment in the State, which is remarkable considering the years of the pandemic and the very many difficulties facing the world. This in itself presents a massive challenge because while we have effective full employment, there are clear skills and labour shortages in a number of extremely important sectors. This is why this scheme and the apprentice scheme in general is so important in alleviating these labour shortages and ensuring full employment does not mean our economy regresses.

The importance of this scheme is evident. The aim is to have 10,000 people in apprenticeships by 2025. That 8,500 people are in apprenticeships this year is a good start and a good sign. We are seeing very progressive companies and employers engaging in this in the knowledge that having apprentices is a benefit. It is not just to ensure they are trained, educated and tooled, but also that they can play their part in a functioning workforce.

I fully agree with Deputy Bruton that the laggards in this regard are many of the public sector and traditional employers which are not embracing apprenticeships in the same way. We must ensure apprenticeships are put on the exact same pedestal and there is genuine equality of opportunity for all, be they school-leavers or people who are transferring between careers, to make sure we embrace the sorts of skills and trades we need. We are moving past the traditional construction skills apprenticeships, of which there is a dearth, and I particularly welcome the announcement today by the Minister, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, on addressing the serious shortage of hauliers and people working in the hospitality sector, healthcare, life sciences and so many other areas.

It is important that we do not just look at making apprenticeships far more accessible for school leavers. I welcome the new format of the CAO and that it will be so much easier for people to consider an apprenticeship at the same time as considering a course in a university. We must also consider those who want to move career or need to be encouraged to change career. I am aware of many people, both anecdotally and in my own circle, who completed a university course and went into a profession, perhaps as a result of misplaced encouragement by their parents or a guidance counsellor or teacher in school who assumed they must do a university course, and after ten years of career dissatisfaction have taken the opportunity to move into a far more rewarding career. They need the opportunity to come into an apprenticeship later in life, bearing in mind the skills they have from a previous vocation or training, and use that to give them an edge. This will make sure we have not only 18- and 19-year-olds going into apprenticeships but also people who are older and are prepared to change careers or are at a different stage in their careers and want to go into something totally different. That area is crucially important in this also.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Collins, for facilitating this important debate on apprenticeships and the absorption of the apprentice programme into the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Apprenticeships have given lifelong careers to Irish people working around the world. The creation of these vital skills is crucial to the further development and growth of nearly every sector of Irish society.

Apprenticeships have long been the tradition of trainees and individual employers, but this has changed in recent times. Apprentices now receive a broader training in a particular sector, making them more mobile and flexible in their career choices. The pandemic disrupted a lot of apprenticeship programmes. I hope these have all been restored. Perhaps the Minister of State will be in a position to confirm this to the House when he closes the debate.

We need to set new targets for future skill needs in five, ten and 15 years. These should be negotiated with different sectors so we do not have the skills shortage we are experiencing at the moment in certain sectors. Many new skills are needed, an example of which is retrofitting. Very few people had even heard about retrofitting ten years ago but it will be a vital element if we are to achieve our climate change targets.

I welcome today's announcement by the Minister, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, on the creation of a new apprenticeship programme in transport operations and commercial driving. I am very familiar with the opportunities that apprenticeships offer in the aviation industry, especially in the Shannon region. Some of these people are now working in all corners of the world. We should encourage a link-up of the apprenticeship programmes in the different sectors to the new technological universities. This would benefit the apprentices and the colleges. It would give the former an internationally recognised qualification, which could lead to further education and training following the completion of the formal apprenticeship.

I note the success of the national apprenticeship of the year awards, which display the skills and excellence of our apprentices. We should encourage our apprentices to participate in and host the European and world championships. I wish the Minister and the Minister of State every success in developing these new exciting opportunities for young trainees.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank every apprentice who is currently working, and they are working throughout the State. They are incredibly important to our economy and society. Irish tradespeople are working all over the world. They are building and helping other countries to grow and prosper. Sadly, many of our current apprentices will take an aeroplane and leave our shores when they qualify. Some will go by choice, and sometimes this is a decision that will enable them to build and develop on their skills. That will always be the case. For many, however, it will not be a choice. It will be due to the cost-of-living crisis and the lack of housing.

We need a massive number of apprentices in the State to ensure we have the capacity to deal with developments in housing and other sectors in the future. Leaving this to the private sector and employers has not worked. The collapse of the so-called Celtic tiger also led to the collapse in the number of apprentices. We are now paying the price for refusing to deal with that crisis, despite Sinn Féin calling for apprenticeships during the austerity years.

The serious cost-of-living crisis is causing a massive problem for so many of our young people who have taken the decision to get a trade. They simply cannot afford to live and work at this time. I know one apprentice electrician who has had a terrible experience over the past two years. This has resulted in him having to live on lower wages for another year. This was not his fault but he is paying the price. He is currently in his fifth year but is only paid as a third-year apprentice. This is simply unfair. The Government has called for more apprentices but this call will fall on deaf ears more and more because people simply cannot live on an apprentice's wages at this time. We need action.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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It goes without saying that students, and apprentices in particular, are impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. Before the recent hike in home heating oil and electricity, there was the issue of rents, which are a huge cost that are a bane to students and their families. As many have mentioned, we are still dealing with a backlog in apprenticeships. It is unfair that somebody could sign up for a four-year apprenticeship that ends up being five or six years. That has a huge economic and wider impact on the apprentices and their families. These are issues we need to get to grips with. It is as simple as that.

I welcome that we are in a much different world with regard to roadmaps to employment and further education. I welcome the likes of the advanced manufacturing training centre of excellence in Xerox Technology Park in Dundalk, with which the Louth and Meath Education and Training Board was highly involved. We need to deal with industry from the point of view of providing the added training that will be required. We also need to make sure we do the work in relation to apprenticeships and PLCs and look at people who find it difficult to get into that educational framework. I have spoken to the Minister about projects in the Redeemer Family Resource Centre where certain modules were provided in a setting people might have been more comfortable with, before continuing on to Dundalk Institute of Technology, DKIT, or so on. We have a huge amount of work to do in dealing with those sorts of issues.

Regarding climate change and retrofitting, we all welcome the courses that are required but we also need to look at our base apprenticeships, like plumbing and such, and ensure those skills are included within the training framework. That is a necessity. We are back to the same conversation many of us are having about workforce planning. I met lately with people from the nursing and midwifery course in DKIT and I spoke about the possibilities for expansion, which would require capital investment in space and staffing. There needs to be a further audit of what is necessary. We all know the work that needs to be done in research and development. Many of us will have been contacted by the Institute of Physics in Ireland about these issues. We need more of that workforce planning and an audit of the skill sets required in order to ensure we have the training frameworks required for that throughput of people.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister, Deputy Harris, for visiting a number of schools in my area in Dún Laoghaire this year to describe to them the new apprenticeship model that is an alternative to going to university, which seemed like the only option for many. The feedback from students, parents and teachers on these visits was excellent. They were a direct way of showcasing the work of the Department and what it is trying to do to open up third level and higher education to many people who had not considered it, or had not had the full range of options available presented to them. The Department is also working to extend those options and create more and more suitable options for people to give them the opportunity to train in different ways.

It is perfectly obvious that the university only, or university first, model is not right for everyone and has never been. The Department has acknowledged that and stopped pretending that is the dominant model. It is outdated. We have to reflect everybody’s different skills, abilities and preferences and provide different options for people who want to train or retrain at any stage in their lives. The steps taken by the Department with apprenticeship programmes are positive and provide different structures for people of all education levels, skills, stages of life and forms of training to date to develop deeper skills with training or retraining opportunities. It is important for younger people, as we celebrate diversity more and more, that there are so many types of diversity in this regard. Academic and training diversity is important. We cannot simply streamline young people in the way we did through the old CAO process. There is a very real potential of losing out on everybody’s ability and their diversity of skills and training by failing to provide for the different skills they may have.

The new apprenticeship model is a key part of positioning the country for the skills it needs over the next number of years. It is clear that the Housing for All plan requires a huge increase in specialised workers, plumbers, carpenters and engineers to take part in building and retrofitting homes. We have the same challenge with the climate and the green economy. There is an opportunity, through the apprenticeship model, to address many of those skills gaps and provide retraining opportunities. I am delighted to see a specific scheme in place to incentivise employers to take on apprentices, with over 5,000 employers applying to the scheme, which will inevitably benefit more than 7,000 apprentices.

In particular, I commend the Department on its reference to, and inclusion of, the Traveller community. I am heartened to see a reference to Travellers in the action plan, and I commend the Department on its engagement with Pavee Point, which persistently highlighted the barriers Travellers face in accessing apprenticeships. These barriers are also faced by other socioeconomically disadvantaged groups but are particularly commonly experienced by Travellers. They include issues of generational unemployment, lack of education and access to apprenticeships. I commend the Department on setting aside a certain number of apprenticeships specifically for the Traveller community. That was a key request of Pavee Point and I am glad to see the Department recognise that. Only 13% of female Travellers complete second level education and only 57% complete primary education. As Pavee Point has consistently highlighted, the practical apprenticeship model is a key part of the education and opportunity programme it believes is important to provide equality of opportunity for people from the Traveller community. I hope that, as the programme continues, there will be oversight to make sure those opportunities are being realised and provided and are not closed out in any way by employers.

I also acknowledge the Department’s work with regard to gender. Only 5% of the apprenticeship population is female. I welcome the acknowledgement of that because the apprenticeship model is suitable for everybody. Targeting girls and young women for apprenticeships is a measure of employment activation and will provide retraining opportunities for so many of them at different stages in their careers.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank my colleague for sharing her slot. I acknowledge and congratulate the Minister and Minister of State on the tremendous work they are doing to raise awareness of the need for more apprentices, including highly qualified apprentices, in a way that has not been done before. Today's news that we have 2.5 million people at work is a major achievement that should not go astray. I was a Member of this House when we fought hard to bring the number of people employed up to 1 million. We are now heading for 3 million, which is a great achievement. It is a great economic achievement and credit should be given, and taken, for achieving that landmark at this time.

I agree with my colleague that there should be more apprenticeships for women. Lots of young women nowadays are anxious to go into areas that were not previously a particular area for women and they want to succeed and excel there. They are willing to make their contribution to the economy through that area. We also need to recognise, as we are doing, that this area is becoming competitive on the international market. It is good that it is competitive and it is good that our apprentices might be in a position to compete with all others, wherever they come from. In the past, the polytechnics in eastern Europe were highly competitive and apprentices from there were highly competent when they went into the workplace. Many of them are working in this country and they are welcome.

There are times when we tend to drop the head and feel defeated. I am thinking of the criticism that came from the other side of the House not so long ago. Several entities from outside the House were identified and named, which is a serious breach.

I am just bringing that to the attention of the House once again. It is not in order – simple as that - but it has become customary in this House, and that is a sad way to go.

Incidentally, I never blamed Fianna Fáil, for instance, for the economic crash. It came about for a variety of reasons and it was sudden, swift and colossal, a huge hit on the country. To blame Fine Gael, the Labour Party, Fianna Fáil, the Government or anybody else for everything that happened thereafter is outrageous. It does not address the issues as they were. It is simply selecting somebody to blame. I recall quite well that when all the experts were called on, they all had their say. Some of them left this country and went to Greece to advise the Greeks, who, fortunately, did not take up the offer and ultimately survived. A plethora of people were offering economic advice as to what should be done to help the country recover. Fortunately, it was never followed by anybody.

Economic life has never been easy; it has always been competitive. If a mistake were made for any reason, everybody paid for it. To the Deputies on the other side of the House who like to aim their sights on the present Government and blame it for everything that happened previously, I remind them it took a significant effort on behalf of the current Government, and of successive Governments and of the people, to recover from what happened to the country those short few years ago.

Fine Gael is accused nowadays of having been in government for more than ten years, a recipe for presuming it should not be there any longer. In the first five years, we were accompanied by the IMF, which was in government along with the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government of the day during that period, and the Government could do nothing without its approval. That was not fun. It is a fact that happened and we went through it. All of that happened and it is a great achievement we are in our current position. Some members of the Opposition, as it happens, have been to the fore in dealing with these issues as well, so they should also take credit. At the end of the day, we are where we are, where we had not been since 1845, with the largest number of people ever in employment. That is a major achievement. We can and will do much more, but we need to recognise we have to be competitive.

We learned two lessons during the Celtic tiger era. We learned to be greedy, which was unfortunate, but we also developed qualities we had thought we did not have, such as self-belief and confidence in our own ability. Where previously we had exported our population to help other countries prosper, suddenly we were in a position, as we now are, where we could encourage people to join us and help us make the country better for them and everybody else. We should rightly take a bow and be proud of the achievements on behalf of the people and the Government. We are not as bad as we are made out to be.

Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent)
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I am sharing time with Deputy Canney. I compliment the Minister of State on taking decisive action to develop opportunities in the apprenticeship sector and on taking corrective action to address a much-neglected sector. Apprenticeships have a crucial role to play in the future of this country and technological universities have added to their appeal. The creation of these forward-thinking centres of education has raised both the profile and the appeal of job-focused training in a blended-education and practical format. For example, outside of what are traditionally considered as apprenticeships, it is now possible to progress to a level 8 masters degree as an insurance practitioner or a level 7 degree in financial services. This is welcome news for both male and female school-leavers. Traditionally, girls have had far less choice when it comes to taking up apprenticeships, but this is continuing to change. It is moving towards being a more level playing field when leaving certificate students consider their options for third level education.

In April of last year, news that the number of apprenticeships will increase to 10,000 places per year by 2025 was a very positive step. This was especially welcome news for centres such as the training centre in Archerstown, Thurles. Once again, I compliment Tipperary Education and Training Board, ETB, on its foresight in opening this wonderful facility. The centre trains apprentices from throughout Ireland in their phase 2, off-the-job training period. Currently, training is provided for apprentices in trades relating to electricity, electronic security systems and construction plant fitting. In 2020, a plumbing apprenticeship was introduced and, last year, a commis chef apprenticeship came on stream.

A measure of the success of the training centre in Archerstown is that it has recorded an increase of approximately 45% in the number of apprenticeship registrations. Numbers have increased from 195 apprentices registered in 2020 to 344 last year. A total of 429 active companies in County Tipperary are registered with the ETB and no fewer than 988 apprentices were employed by these companies in 2021. A notable addition to the supports offered to learners through apprenticeship services has been the provision of mathematics for crafts, as well as the successful piloting of a psychological support service. The national hairdressing apprenticeship is coming on stream this year, and moves are under way to introduce retail and sale apprenticeships while other apprenticeship courses are also in the pipeline.

The training centre in

Archerstown, Thurles, is a prime example of the choices available to students considering undertaking an apprenticeship. Increasing numbers of school-leavers are realising that a secure future, excellent earning potential, continuous demand for their skills and, if they so wish, being their own boss are just some of the appealing benefits of taking up a trade. This growing interest in apprenticeships is reflected in the plans the Thurles centre hopes to bring to reality. Tipperary ETB is working with SOLAS to secure capital funding to expand the provision of facilities in Archerstown. These works, planned for 2023, aim to see greater classroom and workshop capacity added to the existing centre, along with additional canteen facilities. The works are part of the fifth phase of the development plan for the centre. Completion of the work will allow for the further expansion of apprenticeship numbers in the centre. Tipperary ETB is also exploring the development of additional new apprenticeship workshop space in a building adjacent to the Archerstown centre. This exploration is at an early stage, with an expression of interest submitted. The plans being considered would provide for eight new apprenticeship workshops and, potentially, up to 200 additional apprenticeship places.

The process of securing capital funding is both challenging and complex. I ask the Minister of State to assist in this process and to support the proven efforts and commitment of the training centre in Thurles. It is already a centre of excellence but, with the necessary expansion, it can play an even greater role in training and preparing young men and women to meet the growing needs of the future.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to address the Minister of State in regard to apprenticeships. As a former lecturer at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, now the Atlantic Technological University, I have seen in my work in the private sector how apprenticeship courses, and apprenticeships as a facet of construction alone, are a vital component. Unfortunately, in the boom times, the apprenticeship ethic fell by the wayside. People were more inclined to work to make money without getting the formal qualifications required, and when the boom ended, we found many workers did not have the necessary qualifications. Coupled with that, many parents did not consider an apprenticeship a way forward for their children. Most parents aspire to the highest level of education for their children and may have thought that would always be in third level rather than in an apprenticeship, but that is far from the case.

I welcome the fact the Government has expanded the number of apprenticeships and the areas in which they are and will be available. That opens the vista for young men and women to become qualified in a given skill and create a great career. There are certain steps we need to take to ensure apprenticeships as a career choice for young people will be well and truly highlighted in secondary schools throughout the country in order that students and parents will be aware of their benefits.

Employers have a role to play. They must look to the future of their industries, whether it is hotels, construction or IT. They must ensure they have people coming into the business at all times. What is happening in the construction industry is a manifestation of the fact apprenticeships did not happen in the past ten to 15 years and we do not have the skilled workforce at the moment. I am sure we will get on top of it again.

I also believe State agencies have a role. The local authorities need to have apprenticeship schemes. They can play a large role in that. In my own town, when the sugar factory was there, the authority had apprenticeships for fitters and all those types of things. That lent people the skills, which they subsequently developed, and they are now in business themselves as a result.

There is an area that has been missed out. Going back to my time as a lecturer, it is important when somebody wants to do an apprenticeship and then wants to go on to get further education that the apprenticeship course is tailored to suit the programme in the technological university so he or she can progress rather than having to go back to year 1 when he or she starts there. This ensures the person is progressing. Maybe he or she could hop into the final year so the course the person does as an apprentice is compatible with what he or she would be doing if he or she went into third level education.

We also need to ensure the apprenticeship is focused and the apprentice has a certain amount of income. The level of income should be increased, especially in the first year of an apprenticeship. It is very important because we want to attract people into apprenticeships and not for the sake of it. I have seen how good apprenticeships have brought people to being project managers, construction managers and owners of their own companies. That potential is there for us and I compliment the Government on bringing forward the initiatives. We need to continue to do that.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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Tá áthas orm labhairt ar na ráitis a mbaineann le printíseachtaí inniu. Tá sé soiléir go bhfuil béim i bhfad níos mó curtha ar phrintíseachtaí agus cuirim fáilte roimhe sin. I welcome the fact more of a focus is now being put on apprenticeships. It is long overdue. There are certainly many positive developments with apprenticeships, their promotion, the work WorldSkills is doing and the competitions it is involved in. I commend WorldSkills because it is putting high-calibre apprentice from this country on an international stage and they are achieving. That is something very positive and will help us to ensure apprenticeships become a highly valued part of our education system going forward. For too long they have not been highly valued, as they are in countries like Germany. I would like to see us getting to the same level as Germany and highly valuing our apprenticeships.

Making places available and valuing apprentices is one thing but we must ensure we are retaining the people who are taking up apprenticeships. At the education committee meeting this week we listened to a number of apprentices and they were telling us of the challenges they are facing. That is all related to the cost of living and the fact they are not given any sort of financial assistance or a grant. That is a big mistake. If we are to go forward and ensure we have higher numbers of skilled people and people in trades, we must see that those people are helped to progress through the system and not left with no choice but to opt out of it or be demoralised. It is important we encourage them. If the places are being made available, we must ensure they continue on and that they are helped in that. The committee heard from an apprentice who was doing a course in Waterford. He explained that by the time he travels from the IT in Waterford to his home in Cavan, he has just €30 left in his pocket. That is the danger I was referring to. Some of these people will have no choice, unfortunately, but to leave the apprenticeships, and we do not want that situation. I therefore appeal to the Government to put some incentives, and indeed grants, in place for them.

We know from the experience of the education committee also that there are a number of changes we need to make in the area of apprenticeships. These include ensuring the senior cycle curriculum prepares students for apprenticeships, further education and entering the workplace as the key national priority, with guidance councillors also playing a vital role in communicating the options to students. For too long now we have had too much emphasis on the academic. That has led to a serious gap in the form of skills shortages in industry, so going forward we must ensure we are bringing everybody with us in our education system. I raised this at the education committee the other day, but if we were to involve some of the young people who have taken up apprenticeships in visiting schools and speaking to the students, perhaps those in transition year, to give their personal insight and maybe encouragement, it would be a good and positive thing to do to encourage students to take up apprenticeships.

I understand that under the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021 to 2025, a key priority is to increase apprenticeship registrations to 10,000 new registrations per annum by 2025. Under that plan, an employer grant of €2,000 for employers of apprentices on consortium-led programmes to help level up the supports that other categories receive has been introduced. I welcome that but we need to ensure these commitments are supplemented by further practical measures to support the employment of apprentices in SMEs and the employment of under-represented groups in apprenticeship and delivery of skills essential to our economy. The Minister agrees with me on this matter, and it is way beyond time we radically revised how apprenticeships are viewed in this State and indeed how they continue to be undervalued in our education system. That is where the root of the problem lies. I made the point at the committee that we must remove the snobbery, elitism and the other ridiculous biases that have an impact on the take-up of trades, upon which we all rely and upon which our economy relies.

One specific area that has been receiving significant coverage this week is the lack of chefs available and the impact this is having on the restaurant and tourism sector in general. I received a reply to a parliamentary question on this very issue on Tuesday, having asked the Minister the number of persons enrolled in the national commis chef apprenticeship programme launched by the Department in each of the years from 2018 to 2022. I have been informed the numbers registered for the programme from 2017 to this year are as follows: in 2017 there were just 25 apprentices registered, in 2018 there were 112, in 2019 there were 62, in 2020 there were 16 and in 2021 there were 75 registered. The reply states:

Registrations were impacted by the pandemic in 2020 and the associated shutdown of educational and training facilities. However, registrations rebounded strongly in 2021 supported by the Apprenticeship Incentivisation Scheme exceeding the numbers registered pre-pandemic. Numbers in 2022 indicate that the recovery in apprentice registrations is continuing, with 33 new registrations in the first four months of the year.

We must maintain that momentum.

There are of course other issues we need to tackle. In this regard I accept and welcome the fact the Department announced a new gender-based bursary for apprenticeship employers.

The bursary, which is worth €2,666, is available to employers who employ apprentices on any national apprenticeship programme with greater than 80% representation of a single gender.

All that is certainly to be welcomed, but we must do more to present apprenticeships in a positive light. If we have to draw on the education model in Germany, we should do so.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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The apprenticeship programme should deliver an effective way to provide for the education and qualification needs of many of our young people. For too long the focus has been on degree level performance and that is seen as the only way to go in education. Currently in Donegal, outside of Letterkenny, practically the only way young people will be able to secure employment is through having a skill that would be gained by an apprenticeship rather than a third level qualification. That may be about to change, but it will not change for a while. There are needs for those apprenticeships and that must be recognised.

At present, if a person gets a degree qualification, there are very few opportunities for him or her to live and work in Donegal. In fact, if teaching were taken out of the equation, there would be very few opportunities anywhere. The recent launch of the Atlantic Technological University might begin to change that situation, and I sincerely hope it does. However, even if it does, there will still be a need for the skill sets that apprenticeships supply. Apprenticeships are becoming more important in an increasing number of employment positions, so it might mean the need to go away to secure an education and a viable employment option might not be as important. For that to work, employers need to see the value in offering apprenticeships as well. That is vital. It appears the move to a situation where the employer pays the salary of the apprentices during the education block release element is a barrier to securing more apprenticeships. We may have to consider returning to the system where SOLAS pays for the education element of the apprenticeship to see an expansion in the offerings.

Anecdotally, there appears to be a difficulty with employers retaining apprentices in sectors where there is a boom time operator. For example, some employers are experiencing difficulty competing with wind farm developers who poach recently qualified apprentices with big wage offerings. I do not know what can be done to prevent that, but it leaves a sour taste in the mouths of employers. Perhaps in every industry there are boom time employers whose business is on the up and they can pay rates no one else can match. I am not sure what the situation is in that regard. I wonder, too, whether some employers use apprentices as easy income and whether the apprentices have difficulty securing good pay and conditions on the completion of an apprenticeship. It would be interesting to see statistics on the retention in employment of apprentices and an explanation of why they move as well. Those statistics might already be available but I have not been able to find them. If they are available, I would like to see them because that issue is important.

There is a problem in Ireland with regard to employers recognising the value of their employees to a business. Many businesses would be more successful if they valued their employees and recognised the value they add to the offering. Perhaps that is one form of apprenticeship that should be developed as well - the business owner or personnel manager recognising the importance of the workforce. That would go a long way to a situation where everyone's contribution could be valued.

SOLAS highlighted in a recent Oireachtas committee report the challenge of securing places for apprentices with employers. I have to say that has been my experience as well, more so than workers not staying with employers. Perhaps the change to the payment system I mentioned earlier is a factor in this. To grow the number of apprentices, it may be necessary to return to the system where the State pays for the education element of an apprenticeship. When we realise a successful business depends on good management and good staff working together for the benefit of everyone, then we might see a successful apprenticeship programme.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all the contributors to these statements. The importance of apprenticeships in society, both now and into the future, has never been more apparent than it is today. The action plan sets out new ways of structuring, funding and promoting apprenticeships to make apprenticeship more accessible to employers and learners. Expansion to date has widened the impact of apprenticeship to areas of skills shortage such as engineering, technology skills, logistics and fintech. Apprenticeship has undergone transformation over the past six years. There is a clear need to broaden the awareness of apprenticeship as a work-based route to internationally recognised qualifications and experience for people progressing in their career, school-leavers and career changers. Growing that message is a key feature of planning for apprenticeship in the coming years.

Employers in every sector are becoming aware of the depth of talent potentially available to them, the benefits of direct engagement with education and training providers, and the ability to leverage that opportunity to create engaged employees and to support innovation within their organisations. The simple fact is apprenticeship only exists in areas where there is a demand for skills. They are not approved otherwise. However, apprentice jobs can only exist where employers provide those jobs. The Action Plan for Apprenticeship sets out to support employers to engage with apprenticeship as a key mechanism for building a highly skilled workforce. People learn in different ways and we want to make sure everyone is aware apprenticeship can be a route to a qualification into the future. The actions set out in the plan will deliver clarity for school-leavers, jobseekers, and career changers on the wide range of available apprenticeships.

Furthermore, it will put a structure in place to ensure the apprentice population will more closely reflect the general population through targeted supports for under-represented groups and making sure there is ongoing representation from those groups to advise on specific actions into the future. Empowering people from under-represented and marginalised sections of society to take their rightful place in the system is vital to the success of apprenticeship. Apprenticeship can provide them with a clear route not only to a job but also to a valued qualification and a clear career path, instilling hope and direction that may not otherwise have been readily apparent.

The workplace is changing and the response to Covid-19 has accelerated digital transformation, changing the nature and capabilities required for occupations. Certain sectors were greatly affected, particularly aviation and hospitality, and they may take a long time to recover to anywhere near normal levels. Other sectors, including construction and the green economy, are forecast to recover more quickly and to expand. A significant number of people will need to reskill to find alternative employment and to prepare for the new employment opportunities that will emerge. Apprenticeship provides a rapid route to gaining those skills.

The action plan has been live more than a year and this summer I intend to bring forward a progress report on the plan, detailing achievements against the targets that were set to assess what gains have been made in evolving and transforming the apprenticeship system to meet the needs of Ireland's economy and society. Already, I can report that as a result of a €34 million investment under budget 2022 targeting the expansion of apprenticeship, including the development of new programmes and addressing the Covid-related backlogs, tangible progress has been made. For example, eight new apprenticeship programmes were launched over 2020 and 2021 despite the pandemic. These are arboriculture, equipment systems engineer, healthcare assistant, principal engineer, recruitment executive, sales, scaffolding, and supply chain associate. This year more were added: bar manager, wind turbine maintenance, and transport operations and commercial driving. This brings the total number of available programmes to 65 and will help address areas of severe skills shortage. Programme development has been approved for progression in other areas such as farming, horticulture, finance, manufacturing, construction, cybersecurity and ICT, and a number of others are at the initial proposal stage.

Despite these advances, information on and access to apprenticeship opportunities are limited for those who are not already engaged in apprenticeship. Fewer than one in ten registered apprentices had received information on their apprenticeship from career guidance counsellors in schools or other settings, reflecting the 2019 findings on the quality of information on apprenticeships in schools. By far the majority of respondents, 69%, had accessed their apprenticeship through friends and family or through their existing workplace or employer recommendations. A key feature of the responses from the survey of SME employers is a lack of awareness of the range of available programmes and how the apprenticeship system operates. SOLAS has a very successful Generation Apprenticeship employers campaign that supports employers in promoting and sharing their experience with apprenticeship, and we will continue that message into the future.

The Government is also ensuring the public service plays its part by delivering high-quality public service apprenticeship opportunities, underpinning the ongoing reform of our public service. An interdepartmental working group is developing another key action from the plan, a public service apprenticeship recruitment plan. This will set out ways to deliver a commitment to have 750 annual public service-wide apprentice registrations by 2025.

The pathway to delivering the intended growth of the apprenticeship system as set out in the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 has been informed by a significant and extensive consultation process.

In moving to a single model, the objective is to build on the strengths of both the existing craft model and the consortia-led model. The single model must be capable of delivering apprenticeships that can flex to accommodate the rapid rate of change driven by technological adaption and digital and environmental transformation, which is inherent in today's economy, while retaining the high standards required of Ireland's apprenticeship system.

The existing system has seen two major shocks in the past 15 years: first, the 2007 housing and economic crash and, more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic. While those involved in apprenticeship delivery have moved to meet the challenges presented on both occasions, the need for rapid movement has also highlighted the limitations of the more centralised craft apprenticeship system compared with individual consortia, which had more flexibility to adapt delivery and assessment processes to the changed environment.

The existing post-2016 consortia-led apprenticeships operate under a structure whereby the academic content of the apprenticeship is agreed by a consortium of education and training providers, employers and relevant partners, with the off-the-job training delivery managed by co-ordinating providers who are themselves part of the consortium. This approach has allowed for rapid realignment of off-the job training delivery, allowing in turn for apprenticeships to continue insofar as possible during the Covid-19 period, proving resilience and flexibility under testing conditions. Apprentice occupational profiles, including Quality and Qualifications Ireland level and duration, are approved at national level through the National Apprenticeship Alliance, NAA.

Over the period of the action plan, the dual system of programme governance will be replaced by a single distributed system of programme governance, known as the single apprenticeship system. Responsibility for curriculum and apprenticeship content will be placed close to where activity takes place. This will leverage the core strengths of education and training providers, employers and partners who are immersed in their respective industries. It will also foster the integration of apprenticeship within the quality assurance arrangements of the educational institutions across the further and higher education systems. The national apprenticeship office will provide support for the new apprenticeship consortia and will be informed by the NAA, which comprises stakeholder representatives and will have a subcommittee focused on advising measures for broadening diversity in the apprentice population. Therefore, while there is a move towards a distributed model of apprenticeship, there is a significantly changed and enhanced role for national level governance and oversight mechanisms.

As to when the training backlogs will be cleared, the situation is being monitored on an ongoing basis as a priority for SOLAS as we continue to add more training capacity and training staff and to apply emergency measures. At the end of April, there were 3,616 electrical apprentices, 1,162 plumbing apprentices and 844 carpentry apprentices awaiting their next phase of training. Provision and capacity on these three programmes have been increased by 50% on 2019 pre-pandemic levels to address this and to ensure that apprentices are trained as speedily as possible.

Apprenticeship is at the forefront of an integrated tertiary education and training system, helping to break down distinctions between the further education and training and higher education systems for learners and paving a route to a tertiary education and training system that delivers a range of opportunities suited to differing learning styles and interests. The action plan will deliver structural reform that ensures the apprenticeship system of the future will deliver a more responsive and visible offering to learners and employers.

It is an exciting time for apprenticeship. We are at the cusp of really embedding work-based learning within our education and training system as a clear and transparent offering that is available right across the economy. This is happening at a time of radical change for our country. Employers seeking to engage with apprenticeship will be able to do so in a straightforward and user-friendly way. Apprenticeships will be available, accessible and seen as a real and substantive option for those who learn best by doing and-or who may wish to earn while they learn. By 2025, regardless of the sector, apprenticeships will be a clear choice for people looking for new careers, qualifications or return-to-work options across all areas of the economy. We want apprenticeships to be at the heart of the conversation when employers look for ways to recruit staff. A minimum of 10,000 new apprentice jobs will be available each year and will be filled by learners of all ages and experience. At least 750 of those positions will be in the public sector.