Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

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.

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