Mr. Paul O'Toole:

Thank you, Chair. On behalf of SOLAS I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to attend today, and in particular for your support for the team over the past few months. At the outset, I would like to congratulate the Chair of WorldSkills Ireland, Mr. John Twohig, the organising committee and in particular the team for their fantastic achievement at the WorldSkills Competition 2017 in Abu Dhabi. I wish to add that Mr. Twohig and the support team from the Cork Institute of Technology and the Education and Training Board go above and beyond in their support for the team. It is something very special to them, and they demonstrate that all of the time.

Mr. Twohig and the team members will speak to you in detail about the WorldSkills Competition itself. I would like to concentrate on how the WorldSkills Competition and the great ambassadors we have here today are helping to promote the standing of apprenticeship and traineeship. However, I would like to first mention the role of SOLAS and the relationship with the WorldSkills team.

SOLAS is a funder of the Irish WorldSkills team. The other organisations that contributed to the 2017 WorldSkills budget are the Dublin Institute of Technology, the Cork Institute of Technology, the Technological Higher Education Association, the Higher Education Authority and the Education and Training Boards. SOLAS is a member of the WorldSkills Ireland organising committee, and a member of SOLAS attended the competition as an official observer. As the committee will be aware, SOLAS has also provided communications support to the team.

As members will recall, when we met earlier this year to discuss apprenticeship, this committee emphasised a number of areas that should be addressed to support the development of apprenticeship in Ireland. These included running a promotional campaign through social media, expanding the range of apprenticeships and encouraging employers to participate in apprenticeship programmes. It is important to acknowledge that the vast majority of the WorldSkills team are apprentices and therefore employed. The team has received huge support from their respective employers throughout the competition. Without this support, the team would not have achieved the level of success it did.

A number of promotional activities for apprenticeship are under way. We have developed a central website called apprenticeship.iewhich is a one-stop shop for information on apprenticeship. This has been welcomed by career guidance councillors in particular. We have been running a social media campaign across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Our WorldSkills team has featured extensively in this campaign.

The level of engagement has increased exponentially over recent months, particularly regarding any posts about the team. For example, the post announcing the results reached almost 100,000 people on Facebook alone.

I believe that in Ireland we are beginning to recognise the valuable career options that apprenticeships, traineeships, and further education and training can offer young people. It was encouraging to see these options feature prominently in discussions and commentary about the leaving certificate this year. This was also reflected in the level of media coverage for the team across national and local print, broadcast and online platforms, including RTÉ news. This not only built a bank of support for the team and recognised their fantastic achievement, it also created an opportunity to showcase Irish skills and contribute to the national dialogue about apprenticeships.

I will now hand over to Mr. Twohig and the team. I am sure the committee will find it fascinating and valuable to hear about their experience representing Ireland on the world stage.