Mr. Barry Convey:

Up until now, we have been teaching two curricula to our senior cycle engineering and technology students. One is to prepare them for the assessment and the other is to prepare them for real life and industry and to take up apprenticeships and college courses associated with engineering and technology.

I would include PLCs with apprenticeships. They are very valuable courses. The current climate, where there is a lack of students going on to engage with apprenticeships and PLCs, has to be changed. If we look at the model of the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence, AMTCE, in Dundalk, through Louth and Meath ETB, the model it has introduced and are providing caters for that level 6 cohort so that, although there is a stigma attached to apprenticeships and PLCs, and the parents of the students of this nation want their children to do a university course, that is starting to change. The introduction of technological universities and upgrading the ITs in, for example, Sligo and Limerick to technological university status is welcome and is starting to change the attitude towards PLCs and apprenticeships. The apprenticeships need to be directly aligned with these technological universities.

Regarding the subjects children are picking when they are 12 years of age, they need to have a full understanding of the subjects and the career paths they will have access to. The awareness campaign that will be delivered for STEM at primary, post-primary and tertiary will be an opportunity to make the decision-makers, who are the parents and guardians of our youngsters, aware of the benefits of studying apprenticeships and the possibilities of further education to follow on from those apprenticeships.