Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills
The Future of STEM in Irish Education: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. Jamie Bermingham:
More funding would be a big thing. I brought this up at a meeting with SOLAS recently. I did my phase 2 apprenticeship training in Gweedore, Donegal in 2019. One guy dropped out because he was so far from home. That is a big thing at the minute, especially the difficulty of finding accommodation through all the phases. I was lucky enough to be in Cork for phases 4 and 6, where I was able to stay with family. However, some of the lads struggled. There was the extra pressure of being away from home and it was costing them a lot of money. There was a lot of extra stress.