Mr. Tony Donohoe:

If one looks at evidence from jobs.ie or the expert group on future skills needs, there are particular gaps in the ICT, languages and other areas. It is not that there are significant gaps, but there are significant skills gaps. This is not acceptable at a time of high unemployment. There will always be a certain disconnection between the providers of education and the markets. This is endemic because of the amount of time providers have available to gear up to respond to fill gaps. Apprenticeships have a particular connotation and are almost exclusively linked with the construction sector in many people's minds. That is where the fallout has been. If one checks FÁS's figures, there is hardly any apprenticeship being offered or taken up at this stage. We have to move to a broader model of apprenticeship and come up with a different name such as professional education. For example, Austria was cited as a country in which there were hundreds of jobs available, many of them high level, that had an apprenticeship type model, a combination of classroom and work placements. There will be an opportunity under the Irish EU Presidency to push the button for action in this area.

Regarding youth employment, the committee may be interested to note that the United Kingdom has introduced a direct subsidy of £2,275 for companies which take on 18 to 24 year olds. It is offering up to 160,000 placements under the scheme. If we are serious about zoning in on the issue of youth unemployment, this might be a way forward.