Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I fully support the initiative the Department is undertaking in regard to apprenticeships, which I believe are a key economic driver now and for the future. We need to learn from the past situation where we tailored our apprenticeships for the here and now, for example, for construction. When the construction area blew up, we ended up with people without skills in other areas. We need to factor this into decisions in regard to apprenticeships. SOLAS will play a key role and it is already developing an apprenticeship model for the hotel sector which will be rolled out in the last quarter of this year. We need to diversify our apprenticeship models and keep in mind future trends and ensure people are skilled so that when there is a crash in one sector, they will be able to sidestep into a different profession quickly and easily.

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