Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We need to get beyond the mindset that apprenticeships are for someone else's children. That is a big part of it. I was in a DEIS school in my constituency recently. There is brilliant leadership in that school in presenting the full range of options to students. I think the CAO application process narrows the conversation far too quickly. We keep saying that further education training is great but when we sit down around the kitchen table with our kids, we hand them the CAO form and we talk about higher education. We need to broaden the conversation and that is part of it.