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

I thank the Deputy. There are currently 65 apprenticeship programmes on offer, 25 of which are craft programmes. Some 40 programmes have been introduced since 2016 and eight new programmes were launched over the period of 2020 to 2021, despite the pandemic. Those programmes relate to arboriculture, equipment systems engineering, healthcare assistance, principal engineering, professional doctorates, recruitment sales executives, scaffolding and supply chain associates.

The bar manager apprenticeship was launched earlier this year, as well as the wind turbine maintenance apprenticeship. Most recently, an apprenticeship in transport operations and commercial driving was also launched.

On the Deputy’s query on the technological universities, they will absolutely integral to the continuing work of expanding and rolling out our apprenticeship programmes and training apprentices. Even though they have now gained technological university status, much of the ethos that they gained from their former iterations as regional technical colleges will absolutely exist into the future to ensure the credibility of our apprenticeship programmes.

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