Dr. Phillip Smyth:

I thank the committee for the invitation to submit. I will speak under the following three headings: why a contribution from Shannon College, the reasons for low uptake, and recommendations.

As to why, Shannon College, NUI Galway, is successful in educating leaders for hotels and hospitality. It recruits high-calibre candidates to level 8 programmes, retains them, equips them with professional, business and life skills, places them in the workplace and ensures that they are employed when they graduate. Its alumni have been influential in hospitality and tourism. The founder, Dr. Brendan O'Regan, was told in 1951 that there were not jobs for 12 qualified hoteliers in Ireland. Shannon College now has 500 students.

Its comprehensive placement programmes promote strong links with the employer and a deep understanding of skills requirements. We attract significant numbers of quality applicants for the hospitality sector, which traditionally is not well regarded by such influencers as career guidance counsellors and parents, who have negative perceptions about work-life balance and abilities required.

As to why there is low uptake, first, in hospitality, the availability of labour for tourism and hospitality tends to be countercyclical in all developed countries. While very hospitable and friendly, our history makes us uncomfortable with service, in my opinion, and therefore there is a widespread underestimation among the population of the level and range of skills required in hospitality and, more importantly, the opportunities.

During the recession, tourism was recognised as a pillar of the economy. Perception improved though such initiatives as The Gathering and the Wild Atlantic Way. Irish people who previously would not have considered tourism as a career started to work in hospitality. Unfortunately, this is now being reversed with admissions to all hospitality programmes declining. There will be at least 60,000 additional jobs in the next ten years - at the tourism conference in Killarney two weeks ago, they were talking about 80,000 - and industry practitioners are pessimistic about filling them domestically. Exacerbating this outlook is the fact that provision for apprenticeships in hospitality is weak.

In Ireland, the prestige of apprenticeships has definitely declined. There is still great respect for the tradesman, the expert or the artisan, but it has been overwhelmed, as IBEC stated, by the ever-present media, public and private discourse on points, CAO deadlines, college places, change of mind dates, accommodation, etc. In Switzerland, two thirds of 15 year olds enter apprenticeships which are highly valued in society. If a Shannon College graduate who was placed in Switzerland wants to go back to be a manager there after graduation in Ireland, he or she must go back to the beginning of the apprenticeship system.

On recommendations, State-funded research is required into attitudes to apprenticeship to inform a long-term marketing strategy. This strategy, with a strong message around words such as "expert" and others I have mentioned, should include the use of school liaison officers, which has been successful, as the committee will see from the main submission from Shannon College.

Consideration should be given to level 8 apprenticeships, if only to address the negative educational perceptions of the overall apprentice scheme. Ireland should host WorldSkills as soon as possible to boost the image of apprenticeships in the country generally.

Leaving certificate subjects and curricula should be evaluated to see to what extent they can lead to apprenticeships, both in terms of motivation but also content. It is strongly recommended that a separate subject in tourism and hospitality be offered. It is amazing that in the current business studies programme in the leaving certificate there is no hospitality or business section while one in nine of the working population is employed in hospitality and it is a pillar of society.

Lastly, there is an urgent need for the development of a comprehensive suite of apprenticeships in hospitality. I recognise, however, that this would be difficult, and two good chef trainee programmes, at levels 6 and 7, have been developed.