Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am glad this motion is before the House. The issue of the redevelopment and expansion of the apprenticeship system is vital to our future economic success.

When I became part of the last Government in 2011 the apprenticeship system had collapsed. In fact, much of my time was spent trying to help people whose apprenticeships had collapsed. The idea was to help them through various agencies to find a way to complete the apprenticeships. There was a period when almost no apprenticeships were being offered by anyone. I am happy to say that four or five years ago I was heavily involved with ESB. The company was the first major employer to recommence electrical apprenticeships on a wide scale. There was a high level of interest throughout the country from young men and women from all walks of life and every part of Ireland who sought to become apprentices.

In the case of the skilled trades, including sparks, it is obvious that what has happened in Austria and Germany is now happening in Ireland. If a person does well in trade examinations, there is an easy stepping stone. I was involved with creating the path when I was a lecturer in education and development in Dublin Institute of Technology. The idea was to have a structure where an apprentice can transfer full-time or part-time to a degree course and become an electrical engineer, motor engineer or construction engineer of some kind.

I hope we can increase the current numbers to serious levels. The numbers are in the low thousands currently. We need an appropriate number for the Irish economy with the demands of employers for labour and in particular the demands in the construction industry. Housing is the most obvious example. There is extraordinary demand for commercial building, public sector building for hospitals as well as building for hotels and facilities for tourism throughout Ireland. These are the cornerstones of our future prosperity and the sustainability of our economic performance. Apprenticeships are key to all of this.

I have had this discussion several times with the Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar. If he has a blind spot, it is that he does not understand apprenticeships. I can understand why. He is used to a world where people go to college as an automatic selection point. In fact, two of the countries we should look to follow are relevant in this regard. These are Austria, which is approximately the same size as Ireland, and Germany. They have what they call the dual system. The dual system means that as a student comes to the later years of her secondary education she can select two paths. One corresponds to what in Ireland is now the conventional path. It involves going directly into third level education or else with a delay of a year or so by doing a post-leaving certificate course and then going directly to a degree. In Ireland we simply do not have the dual path that is available in those countries. In Germany and Austria if a person gets a quality apprenticeship, she can take that apprenticeship and earn and learn. That is important for many people. Subsequently, the apprentice can work in whatever sector the trade is relevant. Nowadays, a range of trades are available. They include working in the insurance, banking and information technology industries as well as working in the traditional craft and construction industries. A wide range of trades are available.

SOLAS, which was created at the height of the economic crash when FÁS, as we knew it, had collapsed in on itself, has been a fairly successful development. It has had significant success in identifying additional and new areas where people could take on a trade. Insurance, banking and IT are the easiest to identify but there are many more. I refer to areas in care and healthcare and allied areas in nursing and other special services in hospitals. There are many areas in which we can expand the numbers of trades. What SOLAS not been able to do is have a structure that will enable us to take on 10,000 to 20,000 apprentices every year. Our numbers are nowhere near the critical level we need. The Minister needs to examine that.

I raise the potential significance of apprenticeship opportunities for people from a Traveller background. Given the history of crafts and skills in the Traveller community there would be a major welcome for specifically geared apprenticeship programmes for people from a Traveller background, whether that be in the different craft areas or in more recent areas of apprenticeship development. It is important that we seek to re-establish and explore these areas as soon as possible. I am aware the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, is very interested in this and that there have been many good initiatives in Waterford.

In the time available to me I want to mention also the significance of linking craft and apprenticeship development with post-leaving certificate courses, PLCs, because in many areas where there are large housing estates that were or still are local authority estates, many people have almost an excessive localism. In the case of some young people, they often become somewhat detached from school in their later years there and are reluctant to move outside their home area in terms of further development, education and training. If interesting apprenticeship opportunities were offered to many such young people, for example, in the motor, construction and craft trades, I believe there would be an intense take-up of the places.

We need to recognise that following the economic crash, many employers who used to take on two or three apprentices are no longer in a position to fund that on a guaranteed basis for three or three and a half years. The structure of the relationship of the employer to the apprentice needs to be re-thought. For instance, when people in construction have an impaired loan rating, they will not be able to get an overdraft to pay an apprentice's wages whereas if the same person came directly through a trade college, a trade PLC or some other mechanism, they could be taken up by the employer and employed after they have done the first part of their trade education. That would result in a big increase in the take-up of apprenticeships by people, whom I believe would be quite good employers.

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