Dr. Sinéad Keogh:

I will introduce myself first, talk a little bit about our programme and then address some of the questions. I represent the medtech and engineering sectors within IBEC. That includes medical technologies, polymer technologies and engineered manufacturing goods. This cohort represents about 80,000 people in Ireland. What is unique about those companies is that there is a significantly large proportion of SMEs. In 2017, after working for three years, we finally launched three apprenticeship programmes - manufacturing technician at level 6, manufacturing engineer at level 7 and polymer technology at level 7. We are delighted to say that we recruited 106 apprentices in year one across 58 companies, of whom 2% were women. This year we have gone to 170 apprentices with 10% female in the second cohort. We are working very closely on this and are trying to promote more women in our apprenticeship programmes. It is a priority for our boards to encourage more women into the apprenticeship programmes. We acknowledge the point and it is something we are working towards.

Our apprenticeships are run in conjunction with five institutes of technology partners in Limerick, Cork, Athlone, Sligo and Galway. That is a reflection of the industries we are serving, which are highly regionalised. In terms of recruitment, currently 70% of the 170 are within the industry. They are recruited within the sector so are already working within the companies, while 30% are new hires. We expect that to change over the years ahead. We expect more new hires as the industry becomes upskilled. We have been among the first out of the blocks in terms of new apprenticeships. It is important to remember that it is an occupational profile. The apprenticeship we are operating is open to all manufacturing sectors. Of the types of company that have engaged, 48% are in medical technologies and 52% are in engineering. It is quite broad and the occupational profile is a building block for engineering in general. We are out there promoting it far and wide. This year, we have recruited in food, ICT, aviation, automotive - we are recruiting in lots of different manufacturing sectors.

One of the challenges of expanding the apprenticeships is the cost of getting involved. For an SME or company to engage in the apprenticeship, the cost of a three year programme for a new hire is about €90,000. Our apprenticeship includes 15 weeks off-site and we spent two years developing that model. As it is a hands-on, technical training type of apprenticeship, the requirement to be off-site and within the institute of technology is very important to gain those skills. It is quite different from other apprenticeships because there is that focus on practical skills. This creates a major challenge for a lot of SMEs in terms of cost and this is one of the major barriers to us in terms of growing the apprenticeships. It is an issue we would like to bring to the committee's attention. We have a couple of other issues but that would probably be the main one at this point.