Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy makes a fair point regarding the voice of the apprentice. For example, if I wish to talk to third level students, I can talk to the USI and if I wish to talk to university presidents, then I talk to the Irish University Association, the Technological Higher Education Association, THEA, etc. Who does one talk to, however, when one wishes to talk to the apprentice on the front line, other than going around apprenticeship centres, which the Deputy and I do? The new national apprenticeship alliance, which we are just establishing and have just signed off on its composition, will for the first time see apprentices have a collective voice. It is important to have a voice for apprentices that I, the Deputy and SOLAS can talk to and that can be heard. That is important.

I assure the Deputy that there is nothing to do with Covid-19 backlogs or anything else in the idea of having a new structure concerning decentralising the craft apprenticeship model. The idea is to have one structure for all our apprenticeship programmes. We have 62 of them. The crafts and trades are so important, but so too is the account technician, the people working in insurance, the farm manager and the hairdresser. We need to have one unified system. This will be done in consultation with stakeholders, with staff and with trade unions. Their voices will be heard, so there is no motive in doing this, other than to genuinely try to create a modern, fit-for-purpose and unified apprenticeship system.

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