Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is 100% right. Along with the Minister, Deputy Harris, and our Government colleagues, I have set out to bring apprenticeships into the mainstream - into the middle of our further and higher education offerings. The Deputy mentioned guidance counsellors. We are in discussions with the CAO, which will also bring guidance counsellors into the equation, to give people the opportunity to apply for an apprenticeship through the CAO. Part of the apprenticeship action plan, to which I alluded earlier, is the establishment of a national apprenticeship office.

It will oversee all of the apprenticeships, including the pre-2016 apprenticeships for the craftspeople, bricklayers, plasterers and electricians to which the Deputy referred, and the new ones that have been developed since then. They will have an oversight role and a liaison role in respect of SOLAS, the Higher Education Authority, HEA and all the stakeholders in the apprenticeship space. They will co-ordinate all of that, as requested by the Deputy

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