Mr. John Irwin:

I worked in Ferbane in the middle of the Bog of Allen. I am very proud to have worked there. One of the most prized things for any of our students was an apprenticeship with the ESB. Apprenticeships are greatly undervalued in this State. When we look at how the media portray achievement, it is all about going to universities. They totally undervalue different styles of learning. The apprenticeship is such a valuable manner of learning. I am delighted that ETBs are becoming more engaged in the further education area and trying to rebuild what was basically torn down 20 years ago when people stepped away from vocational education. It was one of the great regrets in education that people stepped away from vocational education and stepped away from the value of the apprenticeship. Apprenticeships were just completely undervalued as a style of learning and what they promoted. I know some of my colleagues in the media will probably disagree with me on this, but some of that was media driven because what we highlighted as being important was the university or the IT and apprenticeships were very much second class.