Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent) | Oireachtas source

From my experience, I have found that students are forced into an academic cycle to complete their leaving certificate where vocational subject time is reduced, particularly in respect of the leaving certificate programme. My suggestion to the Minister for Education is to commence the process much earlier and to merge the Further Education and Training Awards Council, FETAC, framework at junior certificate stage, possibly during transition year. Building a two-days-per-week work experience into the apprenticeship, the school would be encouraged to build a partnership with local industry. There are lots of possibilities in this suggestion. Employers could feed into an app or a site. The employer could then be encouraged to highlight its employee shortage for the coming year.

The reason I say this is that I myself left school at junior certificate level. If there were such a system in place when I was in school, I would have then gone on to do my leaving certificate. I went into construction and am in construction still. I see an awful lot of skilled people in school who do not want to be there but if there were this type of cycle, it would encourage people to do their leaving certificate and also have their apprenticeship.

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