Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 3 November 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Challenges to Ireland's Competitiveness: Discussion

Mr. Oliver Gilvarry:

The Deputy mentioned skills shortages, especially in the wet trades. Again, the greater focus on apprenticeships will come through in trying to bring in people. We mentioned earlier that within the new Pathways to Work strategy people need to see what is their career path and how it can develop over a career. We need to make it more attractive to get into this area. A greater number of apprenticeships are being offered and it is an option for people.

The other issue in that sector is that we saw no or very limited building for a number of years post crash. With the targets for the Housing for All strategy and the money being put into the building sector, we should see greater demand for those wet trades as greater work comes through. There is no easy answer per seon this but we see apprenticeships and Pathways to Work as key to continuing development. It is an issue for such trades to get in younger works and reduce youth unemployment levels. It is important for people to see a career path and it can be developed.

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