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

I thank the Deputy for her question. The backlog in apprenticeship training to which reference was made results from the adverse impact of Covid public health restrictions on the operation of the education and training sector. In responding to these restrictions, it has been a priority to seek to facilitate, whenever possible, access to on-site teaching and learning for essential skills-based activities such as apprenticeship. However, the Deputy will appreciate that education and training providers have been closed for extended periods since March 2020 on public health grounds and that during periods when apprenticeship classes were permitted, they were running at half capacity under social distancing measures.

A detailed and comprehensive emergency plan to tackle apprenticeship waiting lists has been under way across further education and training since August 2021, when some training facilities started to reopen. At that point, 11,859 apprentices were delayed in their training. Since then, a €20 million additional capital investment has provided a large increase in workshops and equipment in every training location in the country. A further €17 million was provided under budget 2022 to further facilitate the response of SOLAS and the HEA, including a significant recruitment campaign to increase the number of trainers.

By the end of January, almost 7,000, or 60%, of those on the July 2021 waiting list were back in training or had completed their phase of training and were progressing in their apprenticeship. The number waiting at the end of January 2022 was 9,570, reflecting the rapid growth in registrations during 2021 and to date in 2022.

Craft apprenticeships are demand-led, with no restrictions on registrations in any single year. The current apprentice population is more than 24,000, the highest it has been since 2009. Apprenticeship registrations in 2021 were the highest they have been since 2007, with 8,607 apprentices employed on 62 programmes. Some 6,955 registrations were in craft apprenticeship programmes, with more than 60% of these in the electrical, plumbing, carpentry and joinery crafts.

My Department, SOLAS and other apprenticeship partners are actively working on additional measures to ensure the waiting list is removed as speedily as possible, enabling apprentices to progress through their apprenticeship as quickly as is feasible. By the end of the year, the vast majority of apprentices waiting for phase 2 placement will have started this training.

By the start of April, the backlog for phases 4 and 6 will be cleared.

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