Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

For example, civil or mechanical engineers who have worked in their areas for many years who want to become electricians, plumbers or qualify in some other registered trade have to go back to become an apprentice with the 16-year olds who left school without a junior certificate to get the recognition to be a tradesperson. We do not have enough tradespeople. Everyone here will agree and have already said there is a delay and we are not meeting demand. The retrofit programme is brilliant, but it is so good we cannot meet the demand. It is a good problem in some ways but it means we have to upskill people. Prior learning recognition does not seem to be working for people who have degrees and masters in mechanical engineering. They do not need to go back to the beginning. Perhaps that is a gap Skillnet could fill. They already have masters degrees and bachelors of science. Then there is the other end of the scale, people who have been working in the trades for 30 years whose prior learning is also not being recognised. They are two things I would like to see. Many people will now say they should have become tradesmen as there is great money in it and they are needed. Many lads who are academic wish they had done carpentry and other things, but it is not the way people are educated. If people are academic, they are expected to do academic studies and if not, they are expected to become a tradesperson, nurse or secretary. That is the historical bad pattern we have had.