Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The number of apprentices currently in place is not huge in proportion to the number of people working in the industry. Clearly there is a lot to be done but it is a step. I am not making a criticism. These are just observations. We are all trying to work our way around to seeing how we can best advance apprenticeships. What incentives are required? I have always believed the public sector should play a greater role in providing apprenticeships. The financial and banking sectors as well as multinationals would also have the capacity and the incentive to deliver apprenticeship courses for upskilling their employees. I do not hold with the idea that we can allow somebody else to train the people, that we can employ them, let them go when there is a downturn and, if there is a skill shortage, bring them in from abroad. Certainly that is not a long-term sustainable way of managing a labour market or an economy that is constantly evolving.

The Chair referred to another aspect of this. Some apprenticeships in trades can evolve and move into other areas. However, in certain areas and particularly in the construction industry and hospitality - areas that traditionally have offered lower pay - it is hard to move beyond the traditional apprenticeship role. A block layer is a block layer until the arthritis sets in and he can no longer lay blocks. It is often the same for people in the hospitality sector below lower management level, in the basic skill set areas. They do not move that well through the system. What can we do to make clear pathways into apprenticeship and clear pathways for career progression? Is it possible to use the apprenticeship as the anchor but to branch off from it into formal education, training, third level degrees or something else?