Mr. Tony Donohoe:

I agree with everything that has been said and I do not propose to labour the point about the cultural shift that is required.

There are a couple of issues about female participation. We have occupational segregation. Apprenticeship is just a way of learning. The low female participation rate reflects the trades where apprenticeships already exist, and that is why the new apprenticeship project is so important. The most successful new apprenticeship so far is the insurance apprenticeship from the institute, in which 60% of the apprentices are female. The second most successful apprenticeship is the one run by Accounting Technicians Ireland, in which 60% of the apprentices are female. The bio-pharma sector of IBEC launched a laboratory technician apprenticeship two weeks ago. Again, females are outnumbering males on it. As occupations evolve, we will see more female participation.

There is a specific issue around the involvement of girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, subjects. The issue has been well-covered by previous speakers in terms of providing role models and that kind of thing.

I want to address the issues raised by Senator Byrne about incentives for companies, particularly given that apprentices might leave. There is an old saying about whether employers can afford to invest in upskilling, and my response to that is whether they can afford not to. They have to do this. We have a great window of opportunity now because companies are screaming out, as it were, for skills across a whole range of occupations. This would have been a much more difficult conversation five or six years ago. Especially with small firms, the approach tends to be one of build it and they will come, which does not happen. The average small firm only thinks about where the business opportunities and the business threats are. Such firms do not think of skills conceptually. They have business challenges. There is a missing piece in the jigsaw in terms of demonstrating how upskilling more generally but specifically bringing in apprentices or providing opportunities for trainees could bring a business dividend. Enterprise Ireland has one or two tools that it is running through the regional skills fora. That initiative requires a very serious ramping up. It is a skills needs analysis service.

The new SOLAS document, entitled Review of pathways to participation in apprenticeship, discusses a new portal where employers can advertise their apprenticeships. My only question is why it has taken five years for that to be there. That would be a basic requirement. People like Further Education and Training, FET, or the various consortia are marketing their apprenticeships, but we need a place where if a company is prepared to offer an apprenticeship, it can offer it online and young people and their families can access this and apply online. It is a fairly basic requirement.

In terms of support for costs, I do not think tax relief, due to the complexity of it, is necessarily the way to go. Our ask on this is far more modest. It is that the apprentices’ off-the-job wages, when they are training in a college, and any associated travel costs would be picked up by the State through the National Training Fund. That is what happens with every other type of apprenticeship. We have met some resistance, again particularly from small firms who just see this as a cost in a way that maybe some of the bigger companies do not. Even that adjustment would make a lot of difference.