Ms Dearbháil Lawless:

In terms of the FET budget, I have to give credit to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. There has been an increase and a lot of momentum put behind trying to support FET more broadly, and particularly apprenticeships. I commend the Department on doing that. However, there is a very high target that SOLAS and the ETBs are trying to reach and it is coming from Government level. Those targets are placing a lot of pressure on trying to make sure we are meeting those targets. Unfortunately, the funding is not there to sustain that model and make sure that it is done well, so the quality of the provision is being impacted and the experience of the apprentices themselves is being impacted. I feel very strongly that if we are going to provide targets, we have to make sure we provide the funding to do that well, or else all we will do is cause damage. In line with that, what we have seen at local level is that other areas of the budget are then being impacted in a negative way. For example, community education and literacy provision are now being impacted negatively, with smaller budgets because of the implications of ETBs trying to meet the demand they have been placed under to support apprenticeships. They are just doing the best they can with the budget they have.

In terms of the CAO, I would always be hesitant in a way to suggest a model that I might not know would work well in that sense. I believe that at the moment what happens is that there is a three-choice process. For example, an apprentice will be offered a location and if they refuse it because it is too far away, they will get two more opportunities. While that might seem fair, in reality it is not fair because if all those choices are very far away from you, you might be a parent, you might have a disability or you might just not be able to afford that transport and, in reality, your back is still against a wall. The realistic situation there is less pressure on the targets in order that the programme can be delivered well, the apprentices have a better experience and there are much more opportunities to say no until there is a suitable placement nearby. Maybe providing something like case managers could make sure that happens. While it is important to make sure we are moving forward with policy and educational provision, if we do not fund it appropriately all we will do is cause damage and equality will suffer.