Mr. Jimmy Deenihan:

By coincidence, over the past few days, I was thinking about that connection between primary and tertiary education and encouraging young people to think about apprenticeships for the future. It is so important now because of the challenge we face as a society in getting craftspeople. It is getting more acute. We will bring people in from Europe to do many of these jobs, such as building, plastering, plumbing and electrical work. This is what will happen because the numbers are just not there. It is important to point those jobs out to people, first, to see if they have an aptitude, to ensure they are exposed to the types of apprenticeship they might like, and that this is then developed through the post-primary system.

I will suggest to my colleagues, including the board of governors and the executive and so on, that TUs will have to go out to the schools to sell themselves, talk to young people about apprenticeships and even bring them to see apprentices in action in the TUs. We also have a job of work to do to sell the attractiveness of apprenticeships to the young population which, as we know, is increasing. There will be an increase of 35% in the next ten years.

It should be emphasised there will be major pressure on accommodation in TUs and the traditional universities. We do not provide classroom accommodation. There is plenty of equipment, as I pointed out in my opening statement. There is no problem with equipment but there is a major problem with space. Some 60,000 sq. m of space is needed in MTU alone. There is a major issue there. I totally agree that the understanding of apprenticeships has to be introduced at a very early age.