Mr. Bryan O'Mahony:

With the regular student orientation at third level, students' unions are involved in delivering on who they are, how to contact them and how to access them. When it comes to apprentices, a lot of student unions are not even aware of them when they start on campus. They are not made aware that apprentices are coming to the campus or asked if they would like to get involved with them. A lot of times students' unions would give out fresher's bags and stuff like that. We are not even told when the apprentices are coming to prepare those for them. It is hard for us to be involved with people we never even meet. How do we get to them or interact with them? By the time we know they are actually on campus, they are nearly halfway through their education phase and gone.