Ms Nessa White:

Let me respond to the question of what the students are saying. When I took up the post on 1 May, I was interested in and focused on listening to the students. We invited a female apprentice plumber to tell her story at our conference in September. Such was the success, that we have engaged with Kerry Education and Training Board, which produces videos and it will make a video of this apprentice telling her story. I certainly am driven by and focused on the female apprentice. Ms Ailbhe Lacey is an example to all of us about what one can do. She told us about her school days and how she tried out as an air hostess and then came back to working with her Dad as a plumber. She was a cool trendy young girl who made the apprenticeship look cool and trendy and that is one element of what we need to do to change culture and conditioning. The other element on which I am focused is the engagement with parents. We know that the home is where young people are encouraged to do something. I take the point that liaising and informing guidance counsellors is a really key part but we have to focus on the role of the parents as well.

We are all invested in the marketing of apprenticeships. SOLAS and many of the partners are highly focused on this point. It is about hearing what the employers are saying to the effect that there is no return on investment in training apprentices. It is about addressing these issues in communications.

I think about the reason that education and training boards, ETBs, are perceived as different. I think about the Suzuki garage I pass this morning. I heard the story from a female apprentice mechanic who went to an ETB school in Carnew. She wanted to become an apprentice mechanic but she could not get any employer to take her on. The principal of the ETB went from employer to employer until she succeeded. She is now an example for us in Gorey of somebody who has formed the linkage. As ETBs we have that strength.

I am really focused on telling the story of apprenticeships in order that the story goes out to parents and students that an apprenticeship is a viable option. We are focused on doing that.