Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 5 December 2017

Select Committee on Education and Skills

Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 26 - Education and Skills (Supplementary)

4:00 pm

Photo of John HalliganJohn Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yes. Deputy Jan O'Sullivan asked about the variation for 2017, the €7 million. The total provision for the training fund in respect of 2017 was €366 million. The savings were due to the expenditure in both 2017 and 2016, some of which was reflected in SOLAS accounts. The €7 million relates to the apprenticeship programme of 2017 where some of the off-the-job provision on existing programmes and the introduction of some new apprenticeships was slower than expected. The €7 million was due to the recovery of the cash surplus of 2016 from the accounts of the education and training boards and that was declared in 2017.

On the apprentices themselves, we have already exceeded the 2017 target for registration of craft apprenticeships, which was way ahead. We are unlikely to reach our target of 800 new registrations across 15 cumulative schemes in new apprenticeships this year. To date, nine of the newer programmes are operational. We are not that far behind. We have initiated new apprenticeships in insurance practice, industrial electrical engineering, polymer processing technology, manufacturing technology, international financial services associate, international financial services specialist, commis chef and accounting technician, and two further programmes of ICT network engineer and software developer have been developed.

In general, from the downturn in apprenticeships during the recession to where we are today, the change is substantial. The IT apprenticeships, in particular, have been substantially taken up. Some are slow. There are many reasons for that, such as that the take up is slow, people may feel the opportunities are not there and the information needs to be relayed more clearly. However, we are confident that we should reach our targets.

If the Deputy wishes, we can send her out a complete detailed analysis of the programme that we have put in place up to 2019 in all of the apprenticeship schemes - where we are, where we plan to be, the take-up on the schemes and where we were when we introduced all the new apprenticeships in the first place.

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