Dr. Mary-Liz Trant:

In the action plan, one of the key planks is about apprenticeship for all and access. One of the early things that was done was the setting-up of an access and inclusion subcommittee, which includes representatives of the Irish Traveller Movement, of AHEAD, the disability movement, and of the Irish Refugee Council, representing minorities. That group has been meeting very regularly and has a work plan. The apprentice survey that we completed last year was co-designed with that group. We asked questions about background and so on and for the first time ever we got feedback on the profile. The Irish Traveller Movement, for example, told us that the figures tallied. A total of 34 apprentices had identified as being from the Traveller community. The Irish Traveller Movement said that the majority of those would not have so identified to their employers but would do so in an anonymous survey. We need to keep building and developing that. Similarly, we need to start building that capture of data in a very robust and anonymous way, through registration, so that we can really start to track it and see it. I was involved when in that when it was introduced in higher education. Asking those questions has been really powerful as a way of focusing and driving policy.

On women, the Senator is right about having more women in the traditionally more male-dominated areas like finance, accounting and so on. The overall numbers show that about 9% of apprentices are now women but only about 2% of craft apprentices are. There are still some craft programmes where there are no women at all yet. We have been doing a lot of work on this. The Senator has probably seen some really high-profile women, including the Laois Rose of Tralee, talking about being a green craft apprentice and the opportunity that provides. We are really trying to amplify those voices and stories and to provide encouragement to others through actual women who have gone through apprenticeships and have really successful careers. Getting employers on board is also very important. We got some very interesting survey feedback from apprentices about some of their experiences on construction sites and about whether they are sufficiently inclusive and welcoming of women. The answer is that a lot of them are but there is still work to be done. We will be doing a follow-up over the autumn with employers and briefing them on that feedback. We will be working with the Construction Industry Federation because there is work to be done here. We will be asking it what can be done with the particular feedback we got. It is ongoing work that is incredibly important. I would expect to see the whole inclusive element of apprenticeship for all featuring equally strongly in the next action plan.