Mr. Alan McGrath:

Apprenticeship is essentially a programme of employment. To become an apprentice, you must be employed before you are in the education system for part of your programme. The good news is that they are employed.

I was struck where jobs and not careers were mentioned by Deputy Tully. The aim of the programme is to set a person up for a career. If one is an electrical apprentice or is in one of the new information technology, IT, programmes, the goal is to set one up with an employer to make a career in that area. Obviously, people change and continue to grow and that is something that we are working on.

A key part of having more people with disabilities in apprenticeships and, in further education and training, FET, goes back to Deputy Tully’s question about raising awareness with employers, which is completely crucial. A good bit of work has been done but a job of work still needs to be done. The plan on the apprenticeship side is to engage with employers this year and to set a baseline, for example, which is one of our aims for participation for people with disabilities. We need to understand what industry and employment require and are saying and we need to understand then the legislative requirements for them to support someone participating in employment. That will be done.

As to some practical measures, with the National Apprenticeship Office, which is a construct of SOLAS and the Higher Education Authority, HEA, together, is setting up an equity of access committee to support and advise it on delivering the action plan for apprenticeship recommendations, which includes specific actions around disability. That will be important because it will have the key people telling that office what is required.

On broader supports, incentives have worked in other areas of apprenticeships. During the pandemic, for example, we introduced an incentive for people to be employed and that could be used to increase participation with disabilities. I am glad to say that there is an action in there to develop a bursary for people with disabilities, as there is for gender bursaries.

On the further education and training side, we fund education and training boards to support all learners, including people with disabilities. We are trying to embed universal design for learning, which was mentioned by colleagues and which involves removing as many barriers as possible so the system is accessible to all. We also provide wraparound supports where required, including personal assistance and those kinds of things. The fund for students with disabilities has been introduced for post-leaving certificate and other learners in further education and training. In 2020, we introduced a mitigating disadvantage fund.

On the transport comment, it is not a replacement but during Covid and shut-down when people had to go more or less remote and online, the mitigating disadvantage fund made sure devices were available to all learners to ensure they could continue their education, engage with their tutors and other learners. Those are some of the practical measures introduced in the past year or two.